India 
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Cyber security is like any other security – you don’t realize its importance unless you need it. In the digitized world, it will be safe to say that every company is a tech-based company. Even if it doesn’t sell technology-based products or services, it uses technology to run and manage the business. In fact, with the world evolving into a unified marketplace, an increasing number of companies have branches or employees spread across the globe. Hence, most organizations leverage the internet to keep their processes running.
Having said this, it is also essential to understand the growing number of cybercrimes and the ever-increasing cybercriminal-ecosystem. In such a landscape, cyber security needs to become an integral part of every business. However, cyber security in India is still in its nascent stages. Let’s look at the top 5 challenges to the adoption of cyber security among professionals and businesses. Today, we will talk about five major challenges to the adoption of cyber security in India.
Cyber security is treated as an ‘IT’ problem and not a ‘Business’ problem
The first challenge to the adoption of any technology or service is the mind-set of the stakeholders. In India, typically, any problem associated with the technology is branded as an ‘IT” problem. Business owners assume that the IT department will take care of the problem and it will be business-as-usual soon. However, if the IT department is not equipped with the right resources (equipment or human resources), then there can be times when it can fail to fend off a cyber-attack. When that happens, businesses spring into action attempting damage control and realizing their folly.
In 2019, the average cost of a data breach was Rs.119 million, up 8% from 2017.
Lack of Capable Cyber Security Professionals
In recent years, many organizations are realizing the importance of cyber security and have been trying to ramp up their processes and human resources to keep them protected against online threats. However, the number of available professionals far outweighs the demand.
According to some market reports, India might need around 1 million cyber security professionals by 2020 (let’s say 2021 considering the COVID-19 pandemic). This is where institutes like TalentSprint have joined hands with the industry & academia to offer structured programs in cyber security, focused on creating competent professionals to meet this demand.
Friendly Regulations
Regulators in India are taking active note of the increasing cyber-attacks and formulating guidelines and frameworks for implementing comprehensive cyber security mechanisms in organizations. But there is still a lot of scope for granular and sector-specific regulations. Further, with data being exchanged across borders, Indian regulators also need to keep in sync with the global norms. Moreover, compliance parameters and processes are yet to see a concrete shape.
Increasing Dependency on Third-Party Vendors
Even companies who dedicate time and resources for cyber security can lose sensitive data if the third-party vendors used by them get hacked. There is an increasing dependency on third-party vendors for cost and process-efficiency. Unless there is a culture of cyber security in the market, the adoption rates will be low.
Awareness and Readiness
Two main aspects that need to be addressed to increase the adoption of cyber security in India are awareness and adoption. Organizations need to know the potential losses they can face if their systems get hacked or infected with a virus or malware. They also need to stay abreast of the latest cyber security processes adopted by organizations around the world. Once they are aware and ready to accept cyber security as an integral part of their core processes, adoption would be easier, comprehensive, and more effective.
Summing Up
The common thread among all these challenges is the people factor. Are they aware, trained, and capable of recognizing and dealing with cyber-threats? In essence, it boils down to empowering people.
TalentSprint with its Advanced Certification Program in Cyber Security and Cyber Defense is helping professionals become cyber security experts with cutting-edge knowledge and guidance from IIT Kanpur.
As people realize the importance of this growing technology, we will soon have an ecosystem that has cyber security as an essential corporate pillar.
