India needs to review its 2013 cyber security policy

India is among the top 10 countries facing cyber-attacks. These incidents have increased manifold during the lockdown period — almost three times increase in cases of phishing, spamming, and scanning of ICT systems, particularly of critical information infrastructure. There is a significant increase in incidents relating to hacking, injecting malware through spam emails, and other forms of exploiting vulnerabilities. There was an almost 56% rise in malicious traffic on the internet during the lockdown period also on account of the culture of work from home. This might be just the beginning which suggests even more increased interest in exploiting cyber breaches.

 

A piece of news daily too reported massive “denial of service” attacks on the financial institutions in the country which, however, could not be verified. The border stand-off has further increased worries about enhanced cyber attacks from China and its close allies. Several advisories have been published by the Indian Computer Emergency Team and media about possibilities of cyber-attacks from China, though not much malicious activity has been observed.

Many cyber hackers — state, non-state, professional, freelancer’s groups, so-called “anonymous groups” — operate worldwide and conduct attacks internationally. Approximately more than one-third of all cyber-attacks worldwide are launched from China. They have one of the largest military groups of cyber experts in the world. Countries like North Korea and Pakistan are also very active on their own and work in close collaboration with the Chinese. These countries have been accused of perpetrating state-sponsored attacks for a variety of purposes.

 Recently, the Australian Prime Minister expressed concerns over Chinese cyber attacks. About 38% of Advance Persistent Threat Vectors like APT40, APT3, APT10, and APT17 have been reported to be developed and deployed by China for espionage, stealing of data, and IP. Some APTs are general-purpose tools but others are customized for specific countries and purposes. The techniques and tools like APT1, APT3, APT10, APT15, APT17, APT26, etc have been deployed against India too. The Chinese are in the process of developing technology to penetrate the internet through satellite channels. Pakistan too has deployed APT 36 targeting Indian entities. The role of a hacker group called LAZARUS is well known in carrying out attacks on financial targets in India, Bangladesh, and other South Asian countries.

The National Cyber Security Policy, 2013, was the first comprehensive document brought out by the government. The policy had several action points. Important ones relate to setting up a National Cyber Security Center, Test Infrastructure, Malware Monitoring & Cleaning Center, National Critical Information Infrastructure Center, etc.

The government had announced that a new Cyber Security Policy, 2020, will be brought out. Certainly, there are a lot of gaps with regard to the resilience of infrastructure. However, let us not overestimate Chinese capabilities and underestimate ours. Their software codes are not so sophisticated, but they are successful due to legacy systems deployed in the country. Technologies like artificial intelligence, machine earning, internet-enabled devices, and big data have complicated the cyber attack ecosystem. Nevertheless, agencies in the country are geared up and capable to address challenges. Indian entities have successfully defended large cyber attacks from China and other countries. We, however, need to review the 2013 policy and take corrective steps to strengthen the system to enhance the resiliency of cyber-infrastructure in the country, particularly critical infrastructure. The draft of the policy, considering technological innovations and resulting complexity in cyber incidents, should be announced.

The National Cyber Coordination Centre urgently needs a significant upgrade in all aspects, including technology and manpower. Time is of the essence. The role of the national cyber-security coordinator may also need to be reviewed regarding his effectiveness in comprehensively coordinating cyber-security issues. Maybe he needs to be empowered. There must be a single-point of responsibility at the central level.

Proper coordination is needed between the coordinator and the respective regulators. We are in a connected world. More and more activities will be carried on the internet and public networks. The heterogeneity of devices and software will increase with more built-in vulnerabilities. Tech and data, due to their very nature, will get more and more geopolitical attention. We have set a target of a US$ 5 trillion economy. It is better to be prepared now with respect to policy, legal framework, monitoring infra, and technology to emerge as safe a and secure digital country.

Hinduism Through Its Scriptures

My earliest memory of ever having heard anything from the scriptures was after a wedding when there was a fire sacrifice being performed and the priests were chanting with movements of hands, what is called Shanti Path, or Shanti Mantras.

And a lot of them like Salvation and Sukhinah Santu, they were about wishing for everyone's happiness and peace. When I began to understand, what remained with me was not just the words and the meanings, but also the sounds, and how the impressions of the sound and the entire ambiance created a profound sense of harmony.

The scripture is not just a material physical thing, or just the words, it is also performance. It is also how people use their own imagination to interpret the sacred.

What has come to be called the Hindu tradition is a rich fabric of civilization, interweaving numerous threads and hues of religious life. The intricate blend of Aryan, Dravidian, and various tribal cultures has resulted in a rich variety of religious practices, a diverse region of many peoples and languages, and various forms of worship through the many manifestations and images of the divine.

This dynamic network of religious currents is, therefore, better represented in the plural as Hindu traditions. Formulations and reformulations of these currents have continued through the centuries. And they continue today as Hindus in communities throughout the world reshape traditions in the context of their contemporary societies. While Hindu currents of thought and practices have flourished on the Indian subcontinent for at least three millennia, the concept of Hinduism as a world religion, as a unitary package of beliefs and rituals akin to Christianity, or Islam, or Buddhism, emerged only in the 19th-century colonial context via processes much debated in scholarship over the past three decades.

While there are many divine figures, each with many names and forms, a large number of Hindu worshippers would insist that this many-ness must be understood in relation to a radical one-ness, expressed through the concept of Brahman, understood as the reality that transcends all personal names. This one reality, call it Brahman the divine or the real, can be perceived in and through an infinite number of names and forms. The earliest literary sources of the Hindu tradition are the Vedas, literally knowledge, a body of ancient hymns and chants composed in the second millennium BCE, sometimes referred to as Shruti, meaning literally what is heard.

The Vedas were not read on the page, but recited orally in metered verse. The Upanishads consider the end of Vedas and dating largely from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE are their wisdom literature and take the form of dialogues between teachers and students, reflecting about the origin, basis, and support of the universe.

• What is the cause?
• What is Brahman?
• Whence are we born?
• Whereby do we live?
• On what are we established?

So asks the seeker in the Svetasvatara Upanishad.

The teachers of the Upanishads point the way to a profound realization, that atman, the innermost self or breath of life, is identical with Brahman, the ultimate reality that pervades the entire universe.

Along with these texts of philosophical reflections, another set of texts called the Dharmashastras were composed in the centuries before the common era.

These focused on the moral and social duties of individuals based on their place in society and their station in life. The philosophical reflections of the Upanishads and the moral injunctions laid out in the Dharmashastras were woven into two epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

The mythological compendia called the Puranas, which have been the core texts of Hindu since the early centuries of the common era, contain hundreds of narratives about divine manifestations and form the basis of varied religious expressions through ritual, pilgrimage, music, and dance. Numerous retellings and spin-offs of the narratives contained in the epics and the Puranas are also found in popular ernacular texts that serve as scriptures for different groups, especially those outside of elite communities.

Daily worship often offered to images in a household shrine might be directed to a particular god, goddess, or related figure with whom an individual or family has a special affinity. Hinduism is closely identified with India, where more than 95% of the world's Hindus live. In the millennia prior to widespread Euro-American contact and colonial rule, religious identities throughout South Asia tended to be articular, context-sensitive, and somewhat fluid. Hindu, as an identity marker, grew more significant as its scope both expanded and contracted during the struggle for independence from Britain.

The British partition of Bengal in 1905, and later of India in 1947, into the Hindu majority and Muslim majority areas generated a linking of religious and national identities. However, there are Hindu communities in virtually every part of the world today.