India has introduced its first and biggest framework to protect itself from cyber attacks, data theft and other virtual vulnerabilities threatening its national security.

The Union Cabinet has approved the National Security Directive on Telecom Sector in view of the alarming magnitude of cyber threats to India, official sources said.

India is amongst the top three countries in the world with highest number of cyber-attacks. In 2019, India faced around 400,000 cyber attacks as monitored by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) recently told Parliament that till August 2020, Indian citizens, government and business entities faced around seven lakh cyber attacks. As per their estimates, Rs.1.24 lakh crore was lost due to cyber crimes in India during the last year. Recent ransomware attacks as well as data and identity thefts have been a serious cause for concern for India's national security.

The cyber attacks are generally perpetrated through interconnected networks and devices. They are also committed through compromised hardware and software components of telecom networks, officials pointed out.

The office of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, sources said, noted that with the increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the risk will continue to increase manifold and the advent of 5G technology will further increase the security concerns resulting from telecom networks. Maintaining the integrity of the supply chain, including electronic components, is also necessary for ensuring security against malware infections.

Telecom is also the critical underlying infrastructure for all other sectoral information infrastructure of the country such as power, banking and finance, transport, governance and the strategic sector. Security breaches resulting in compromise of confidentiality and integrity of information or in disruption of the infrastructure can have disastrous consequences.

(IANS)