‘Time for steps to check cyber crimes’

Well-structured cyber crime can be a threat to a nation’s security and economy. Different types of threats, including earthquakes, floods and electrical breakdown, may harm a system or an organisation. However, what is of concern are intentional threats, said C Rangarajan, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India.

Cyberspace has provided another opportunity for criminally minded people to exploit. Cyber crime is described as digital wrongdoing. This is an understatement. It is much more serious in intent and scope.

“We can no longer ignore cyber crimes,” Rangarajan said at a FICCI interactive seminar on Looming Serious Vulnerability Threats for Indian banks.

In olden days, to destroy an economy, one of the standard methods adopted by enemy countries was to inject fake currency into the economy. Once the credibility of the currency is destroyed, the economy becomes vulnerable.

In modern days, cyber crimes are, in fact, even more dangerous. “We need to take appropriate action to make our systems safe, adopt appropriate early warning systems and take measures to be able to respond quickly to cyber crimes,” he said.

The combination of developments in information technology and communication technology has created cyber space.

As the fabric of connectivity has broadened, the volume of electronic communication exchange through cyber space has grown dramatically and expanded beyond traditional traffic to include multimedia data, process control signals and other forms of data. As this fabric of interconnectivity has grown, the dangers to the system criminally manipulating the system has also grown.

Cyber security safeguards the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. It assures protection of assets, which include data as well as transmission networks. It protects data both in transit and at rest, he said.

Rangarajan said the greatest emphasis should on building up sufficient safeguards in the system, and this is the responsibility of those who write the software. Institutions that use the software and those who operate the interconnected system must ensure that the safeguards are sufficient and effective, he said.