The growth of industry 4.0 comes with some sort of risk which has been seen in the recent attack on Indian infrastructure facilities by Chinese & Pakistani hackers. But India’s strong Cyber Security Grid has successfully foiled their attacks. India’s Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy revealed that “ two attempts by Chinese hackers were made to target electricity distribution centres near Ladakh but were not successful. We have already strengthened our defence system to counter such cyber attacks”.
Industry 4.0
The connectivity, communication, operation or maintenance of infrastructure facilities linked through the Internet of Things are called Industry 4.0. The fourth industrial revolution has enabled automation in monitoring, decision making, and data generation to avoid any human error in this machine age.
Cloud computing and the internet have made it easier for enemy countries to hurt their adversaries through cyber warfare and hacking. The growth in automation has also brought a set of risks associated with it.
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CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team)
The constant attempt by Chinese & Pakistani hackers to enter the critical infrastructure facilities of India possess some questions that do we have a strong Cyber Defence Security Grid to counter these attacks.
According to the Annual report of India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), 1158208 incidents of cyberattacks were handled by them in 2020 alone. The unleashing incidents of hacking are mainly coming from China & Pakistan.
CERT-In has been given a great responsibility to monitor, analyse, report and respond to the cyberattacks in India. They have been provided with to create a strong net of cyber defence security to counter any sort of attack on Indian infrastructure facilities.
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Incidents of Cyber Attacks
During Galwan’s standoff in 2020, a massive power failure was reported from Mumbai. The financial services, communication services, rails, metro and other institutions were largely affected. China’s People’s Liberation Army ( PLA) was held to be responsible for inserting 14 Trojan horses malware into the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company, reported The Week.
In 2020, another biggest cyber attack was launched at the Kundakulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). A malware in the employee of National Power Corporation India Limited (NPCIL) was gone undetected for six months. The disaster due to the malware attack on the critical infrastructure facilities like nuclear power plants can not be imagined due to its scope in causing suffering to unlimited length & breadth of the country.
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In Global Cyber Security Index 2020, India ranked 10th in its measures of cyber security among 194 member countries. The rank was decided on several measures of legal, technical, organizational, capacity building and cooperation among agencies.
India’s improvement in ranking and the minister’s revelation are proof that Indian cyber ninjas are at work to defend against any type of cyber attacks on the country. With growing virtual attacks and cyber warfare, India needs to prepare an institutionalised defence architecture in cyber security under the ministry of defence to counter any unwarranted cyber failure.
