Emerging Cyber threats and possible solutions – UPSC GS3

By /
What are Cyberthreats?
  • A cybersecurity threat is a malicious act that includes threats like computer viruses, data breaches, and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
  • A cyber threat damages data, steals data, or disrupts digital life in general.
  • Global Examples of Cyber Attacks:
    • The advent of the Stuxnet Worm in 2010 resulted in large-scale damage to Iran’s centrifuge capabilities.
    • In 2012, data from Saudi Aramco Oil Company computers were wiped out by Iranian operatives by employing malware.
    • The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in 2021 was the largest cyberattack on an oil infrastructure.
  • Indian Examples of Cyber Attacks:
    • The data from an exam for the recruitment of police officers in 2019 in India was hacked which resulted in a leak of sensitive information of all the participants.
    • In 2021, a huge leak of customer data was experienced by the famous pizza brand namely, Dominos, India.
    • In 2021, the records of over 10 crore users were leaked from India-based digital payment company MobiKwik.
Concerns with Emerging Cyber Threats:
  • Wide Coverage: Cyber threat is likely to be among concerns for both companies and governments across the globe.
  • Targeted Sectors: Among the most targeted sectors in the coming period are likely to be: health care, education and research, communications and governments.
  • Health-care ransomware: The ransomware attacks have led to longer stays in hospitals, apart from delays in procedures and tests, resulting in an increase in patient mortality.
  • Ransomware as a Service (RaaS): Talk of the emergence of ‘Ransomware as a Service’ (RaaS) — a business model for ransomware developers — is no mere idle threat.
  • Work From Home: The huge security impact of working from home is likely to further accelerate the pace of cyberattacks.
  • Cloud Storage: A tendency seen more recently to put everything on the Cloud could backfire, causing many security holes, challenges, misconfigurations and outages.
  • Dark Web: The dark web is a subset of deep websites that can only be accessed by encryption software. The dark web is vulnerable to abuse by malicious actors as part of cyber threats.
  • Lack of Implementation: Many companies fail to realize that inadequate corporate protection and defence could have huge external costs for national security.
Way Forward:
  • To tackle the increasing cyber threats, preventive and reactive cyber security strategies are needed.
  • There is a need for clarity to ensure protection from all-encompassing cyber-attacks.
  • Every enterprise should incorporate Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) to reduce the risk of cyberattacks.
  • Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) – aimed at limiting the risks to users from web-based threats.
  • The Zero Trust Model and Micro Segmentation as a means to limit cyberattacks can again be self-limiting.
  • Nations and institutions should actively prepare for cyberattacks by prioritizing the defence of data.
  • The law enforcement agencies would need to play a vital role in providing an effective defence against cyber-attacks.
  • There is a need to prioritize resilience through decentralized and dense networks, hybrid cloud structures, redundant applications and backup processes.
There is a need to prioritize building trust in systems and creating backup plans including ‘strategic decisions about what should be online or digital and what needs to stay analogue or physical.
Scroll to Top