NEW DELHI: India’s top public sector banks and other government agencies could soon get a crash course from Microsoft in ways to protect customer’s data attacked by malware, as had happened this week in a security breach affecting more than 30 lakh debit and credit cards in India.
After a successful 12 month pilot project on cyber security, that involved interactions with more than 100 organisations, both government and private, Microsoft on Friday launched its first full scale Cybersecurity Engagement Centre (CSEC) in India, and seventh in the world, at Delhi.
“More than 160 million customer records have been compromised over the last few years. It takes over 200 days before a threat is detected. The cost of a single breach is over $3 million,” said Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman Microsoft India.
The CSEC in Delhi will function as a satellite to the company’s Redmond Digital Crimes Unit (DCU). This unit in addition to enabling and empowering enterprises to manage modern security threats effectively, will fight global malware, reduce digital risk and protect vulnerable populations. “It is a good initiative, considering most Indians are not cyber literate,” said Sahil Baghla, Cyber security expert and author of several books on the subject.
According to the firm, it will use a combination of big data analytics, cutting edge forensics and legal strategies. It is also exploring areas in preventing child sexual exploitation online and partnering with Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). “We will invite government agencies and industry associations to bring their internet protocol addresses and discuss them with our DCU unit,” said Pramanik.
“It can be a good public private partnership initiative and would help fight cyber security and management issues,” Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator under the Prime Minister’s Office told Express
Microsoft, based on their discussions with 100 organisations, found a few high incidence cyber security risks that need immediate attention — unmanaged and unregulated IT assets usage, poor knowledge of cyber hygene among users within the organization and inability of the companies to timely monitor, detect and remove cyber threats.