With a view to further strengthen cybersecurity for India’s digital payments ecosystem, government is planning to go beyond the two factor authentication to the extent of facial recognition, eyeris and even checking location to ensure security of digital payments users, national Cyber Security Coordinator, Dr Rajesh Pant said at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi today.
“The trials of technology for multi-factor authentication are already going on abroad, once it gets approved then we will definitely bring it in India,” said Dr Pant delivering inaugural address at an ASSOCHAM IndiSec – Cyber & Internal Security Conference.
Talking about the National Cyber Security Strategy 2020, he informed that it was put up in the public domain from December 1, 2019 – January 10, 2020, whereby more than 300 comments were received and now it was being finalised and some key ministries would evaluate it.
“We’ve got industry inputs, the draft of the strategy is ready, we’ll do a quick round of sending it to some 2-3 critical ministries and we will put up to the Cabinet for release to the public. The vision of the strategy is frozen and it is to ensure a safe, secure, resilient, trusted and vibrant cyberspace for India’s prosperity.”
He also said that apart from the National Cyber Security Strategy 2020, the current year is also going to be a landmark year for India because of personal data protection Bill of 2019 being presently examined by a Standing Committee on the subject will be debated in one of the Parliament sessions.
The National Cyber Security Coordinator further said that they are incorporating states in some of the important programs being undertaken and are insisting that cyber security personnel ideally should be separate from IT personnel.
Mr Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India shared his perspective on how industry has an increased responsibility of creating a safe cyber environment and how global security standards are evolving and cyber security should be at the heart of the digital ecosystem. He said, India is actively walking towards a National Cyber Security Policy. This is imperative for the goal of a $5 trillion economy.
“Today we are living in a deeply compromised environment, which makes Cyber Security measures profoundly essential. India is the fastest growing market for digital consumers. The advantages are infinite, but the threat to security is also high. We need to have the ability to manage these attacks in a fraction of time,” said Ms Swati Rangachari, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Sterlite Technologies Limited at ASSOCHAM conference.
In his address, ASSOCHAM secretary general, Mr Deepak Sood said, “The rapid pace of technology assimilation with billions of connected people and machines is accelerating the spread of threats. Therefore, the security of our cyberspace is now paramount. Cyber Security works as the interface of technology, privacy and law. The influence of data-intensive technologies like 5G and the cloud is rapidly extending the attack surfaces and increasing the possibility of organizations being hacked.”
