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Source: The post is based on the article “State of Application Security Report: Digital infra gaps drive surge in cyberattacks in India” published in “Business Standard” on 15th November 2023
Why in the News?
According to the State of Application Security Report, India has witnessed a 70% rise in cyberattacks in the third quarter (Q3) in 2023.
What is the State of Application Security Report?
Released by: Indusface, an app security solutions firm
Key Findings of the report:
1)India has experienced over 1.6 billion cyberattacks in the second quarter of 2023. This is an increase of 70% over the previous quarter.
2)Bot attack: It is a type of cyberattack that uses automated scripts to disrupt a site, steal data, make fraudulent purchases, or perform other malicious actions. India, US and UK emerged as top victims of bot attacks.
3)Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): It is an attack where cybercriminals significantly increase traffic to the target website using an army of the compromised computers in order to deny service to the regular visitors to a site. This makes the website unavailable to the user, causing losses to the service provider. The top victims of DDoS attacks were India, the United States and Germany.
Why is India vulnerable to cyberattacks?
| Specifications | Details |
| Accelerated digital adoption, over a short span of time | The widespread digital adoption has left little or no time for the proper development of a backend cyber security infrastructure, putting a large amount of data at risk. |
| Limited understanding about cyber security | The understanding of cyber security and its prevention continues to be limited among the end users. |
| Lack of Cyber Laws | There is a lack of strong cyber security laws and stringent legal framework for identifying and taking cyber criminals. |
| Lack of International Coordination | International cooperation and consensus is missing in this field. |
| Adverse relations with China | China is considered one of the world leaders in information technology. Therefore, it is expected to have capabilities to disable or partially interrupt the information technology services in another country. |
UPSC Syllabus: Science and Technology (Reports)
