The average cost of data breaches in India stood at $2.18 million in 2023 — a 28 per cent increase since 2020, albeit less than the global average cost of data breach of $4.45 million, according to RBI’s latest Report on Currency and Finance (RCF).

The report said the most common attacks in India are phishing (22 per cent), followed by stolen or compromised credentials (16 per cent). Globally, cybercrime costs are expected to reach $13.82 trillion by 2028 — up from $8.15 trillion in 2023, RCF said referring to a study.

Recognising the significant costs involved, most central banks have increased their cyber security investment budgets by five per cent since 2020.

The RCF emphasised that cyber security is an important challenge owing to the diverse nature of cyber threats targeting the digital financial infrastructure.

In India, security incidents handled by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTIn) have increased from 53,117 in 2017 to 13,20,106 during the period January-October 2023

Unauthorised network scanning/probing/vulnerable services account for more than 80 per cent of all security incidents in India

“Industry-wise distribution of cyber attacks in India shows that the automotive industry is the most vulnerable, with smart mobility application programming interfaces (APIs) and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure emerging as major attack vectors.

“The BFSI sector, governed by well-defined regulations, is relatively protected from such attacks,” RBI officials said in the report.

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