India Perspective
The
2013 Policy took a
welcome first step in outlining
the broad principles of how India
can approach cyber security.
However, the government of
India needs an updated policy to
move beyond simply a statement
of principles and outline how to
operationalize cyber security, from
training cybersecurity personnel,
to establishing public-private
partnerships, and to facilitating
civil-military collaboration.
The National Cyber Security
Policy broadly outlined a vision for
“To create a workforce of 500,000
professionals skilled in cyber security
in the next 5 years through capacity
building, skill development and
training” in 2013. After nearly four
years, the number for such skilled
personnel is only 50,000 or 10%
according to latest reports.
Public-private partnerships were
a central feature of India’s cyber
policy as well. The policy called
for the “develop[ment] effective public private partnerships and
collaborative engagements through
technical and operational cooperation
and contribution for enhancing the
security of cyberspace.” However,
there has been little development on
this space. Industry partners such as
the Information Systems Audit and
Control Association (ISACA), the
National Association of Software and
Services Companies (NASSCOM),
and the Data Security Council of
India (DSCI) have collaborated to
address private sector cyber security
needs, but these processes have not
yet aligned with government efforts.
Addressing this gap must be at the
heart of the government’s updated
policy.
Another area of priority for a new
cyber security policy must be fostering
greater civil-military cooperation on
cyber security. A group of eighty
leading defense, strategic and
intelligence officials, ranging from
former Director of the Intelligence
Bureau PC Haldar, former Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of the
Air Staff PV Naik, and former
Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran
called upon Prime Minister Modi
to “take urgent steps” to improve
India’s cyber security standards.
In particular, they highlighted
the need for “more regular, more
formalised interaction” between
the civilian and military branches
of government. The government’s
updated policy must go beyond
the vision of greater collaboration
outlined in the 2013 policy, and
outline the frameworks for such
greater collaboration, potentially
under the aegis of the newly created
National Cyber Coordination Centre
operationalized in August 2017.
Given the rapid transformation
of the cyber landscape since 2013,
as well as the need for a more
comprehensive framework for the
oper ationalization of the vision of
cyber security policy as laid out
by the government, India needs to
update its cyber security policy.
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13 | May 2018 | www.smartgovernance.in