Thapar notes concern about cyber threats to utility and infra space in India
The recently published data protection legislations have instilled more confidence among MNCs, according to Ashish Thapar, Vice President & Head – Cybersecurity, APAC, at NTT Ltd.
The MNCs, always concerned about security in India, have waited for the Government to formally put in place these legislations.
Thapar noted that there is still concern about utility and infra space as far as security is concerned, while he applauded the Government, Defence, RBI and SEBI for keeping up with robust compliance requirements.
Driven by the market and the regulators, banks have done well in protecting all systems but Thapar feels there is still scope for further improvements.
Also open to risk is the unregulated industry. Retail, hospitality, manufacturing and transportation sectors have to move fast on cybersecurity, he said at the Singapore International Cyber Week held Oct 17-19, 2023.
Noting that businesses are always shy about sharing information that is critical for protecting data, criminals are well ahead and are always raising their bars and increasing the number of scamming networks.
India’s participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and G20 forums is good for building cybersecurity but still it is not enough, says Thapar who has been working on global networks out of Singapore for the past 10 years.
Quad, made up by Australia, India, Japan and the United States, is working on a new information-sharing agreement to improve cyber-resilience and their response to critical infrastructure threats, according to recent reports.
Managing the IoT device growth is going to be a humongous challenge, he says, pointing out that the coming years will see the global IoT network of 25-30 billion devices, up from 17 billion devices as of now. fiinews.com
