NEW DELHI: The policy formulated by India in 2013 towards cyber security looks more like a failed model in the current scenario. While India ranked 23 in global security arrangements in 2017, Britain was several places ahead at 12.
With ever-increasing cybersecurity risks and potential threats, Britain quickly put its pedal on the gas and hauled its overall cybersecurity mechanism. The seriousness shown by the UK was to see for all -- it leapt to Rank 1 (in 2018) from 12th in 2017.
India, however, went on to slide further to lose its 23rd rank and reached 47, in a space of just one-two years.
Several such details related to cybersecurity arrangements in the world has been obtained by IANS from global index released by International Telecommunication Union.
As cybersecurity has emerged a serious threat in the contemporary world, a number of measures to avoid any threat or risk are also implemented rapidly across the globe rapidly.
However, according to experts, no such urgency or seriousness to counter cybersecurity risks has been seen in India.
Well-known cybersecurity specialist Pavan Duggal told IANS: "To deal with this issue, there should be a concrete policy as well as strategy. To solidify cybersecurity, a significant amount of monetary allocation is also required. In my view, compared to other countries, India has lots of gaps and shortcomings in this area."
"India needs to work on cybersecurity with more seriousness. If we compare the budgetary allocation towards cybersecurity in Britain with India, we shall realize that our country stands nowhere closer to the UK. They took the matter quite seriously after an attack on their heath-medical online service. Therefore, they are one of the leading nations today," Duggal said.
According to a report, on average, a cyber attack takes place in Britain every 50 seconds. To deal with such threats, in 2016, Britain had earmarked 1.9 billion pounds (approx. Rs 174 billion) for five years in its budgetary allocation.
Another expert, on the condition of anonymity, said: "We need to pull up our socks and get serious on cybersecurity soon. The attackers are looking for an opportunity to breach into India's so-called weak cybersecurity walls."