The government-run cyber security organisations of India and the United Kingdom have signed a cyber security pact to ensure closer cooperation in countering cyber attacks.
"The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been apprised of the MoU signed on May 20, 2016, between Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Ministry of Cabinet Office, UK, as represented by CERT-UK, a unit of the Cabinet Office on Cyber Security," an official statement said on Wednesday.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) aims to facilitate information exchange on cyber attacks, response to cyber security breach and solutions to cyber threats.
CERT-In had earlier signed MoUs with Korea, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Uzbekistan. Ministry of External Affairs had also signed a MoU with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
The MoU has been signed by the countries at a time when cyber crimes recorded in India under the Information Technology Act surged nearly 300 per cent between 2011 and 2014. It poses attacks of greater frequency and intensity to critical infrastructure like nuclear plants, railways or hospitals, according to a joint study by ASSOCHAM and PricewaterCoopers.
Indians will be more prone to such attacks since the latest Intel survey showed that 31 per cent willingly shared sensitive information such as credit card details and login credentials, including passwords. The survey also revealed that 36 per cent voluntarily shared personal information despite knowing that it makes them more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Indian businesses too face increasing chances of encountering cyber attacks which can escalate their cost of restoring systems after such attacks. An IBM-Ponemon Institute study shows that cost of data breach has increased by nine per cent from Rs. 3,396 last year to Rs. 3,704 per attack in 2016. The total average cost incurred by compromised vital information stood at Rs. 97.3 million this year.
The study also pointed out that cost relating to compromised data rose in three other categories: per capita cost of data breach (up 8.7 per cent), average size of compromised data (up 8.1 per cent) and abnormal churn or loss of existing customers (up 7.7 per cent).
Malicious attacks directed at companies, at 41 per cent, were found to be the dominant reason for data leakages followed by technical glitches and human negligence. The research also warned that tightly regulated sectors such as finance and technology experienced more churn while being more prone to such attacks.
