Rapid tech shifts outpace traditional security models, require agile proactive governance, say experts

While India has invested significantly in ensuring instant, affordable and secure payment transactions, and has strengthened its digital foundations, the threat landscape around us is also evolving at an unprecedented pace, said M. Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance.  

He was speaking remotely at the roundtable conference on digital security and national sovereignty organised by Synergia Foundation. 

Noting that there has been a surge in AI-driven threats, deepfakes, ransomware attacks, and so on, Mr. Nagaraju noted that attackers are showing increased capabilities to bypass traditional securities. 

Stressing on the importance of collaboration between various stakeholders to overcome such threats, he said that banks, fintechs, technology companies, regulators NBFCs are different parts of a larger canvas.  

“When they come together, the picture becomes clearer,” he said.  

Innovation and security

Ranjeet Mishra, CEO at Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity, State government, suggested that in the context of digital systems evolving faster than regulations and oversight models, industry and government must co-create standards which balance innovation with security. 

“Cyber risk are now national risks. A single breach in telecom, finance, energy or in any of the critical infrastructure can cascade across all Indian economy. Cyberattacks are now also increasingly becoming more geopolitical. They are using it for disrupting trust, destabilising markets, and also undermine critical infrastructure. This means that cybersecurity can no longer be treated as an IT telecom problem. It must be treated as a broader policy level priority which has to be embedded into our national programme and enterprise strategy,” he said. 

Noting that emerging technologies are outpacing current security models, he suggested that India should prepare to migrate critical systems towards post quantum security, secure digital supply chain with greater transparency, and encourage more indigenous security innovation.  

“We have to encourage more of the public sector entities and classified agencies to start embedding security, by design, to all their tech initiatives,” he said, while exhorting to take a collective path forward.  

Collaborative approach

The speakers included G. Satheesh Reddy, former Chairman, DRDO; Rajesh Pant – chairman, Cyber Security Association of India; Pratap Reddy, former DGP, Karnataka, and Vinayak Godse, CEO, Data Security Council of India, among others.  

Mr. Pant advocated for a centralised organisation responsible and accountable for cybersecurity, while Mr. Pratap Reddy stressed on the importance of capacity building and creating trust between corporates, people, and government.