Cyber attacks on Indian websites have increased nearly five times: Study reveals

According to the joint study brought out by ASSOCHAM and PwC, the cyber attacks on Indian websites have increased nearly five times in the past four years.

The study says that India's budgetary allocation towards cyber security was about Rs 42.2 crore in 2012-13, up 19 percent from Rs 35.45 crore in 2010-11 whereas the US spend reached $658 million, despite the growing threat.

"Globally, most countries are facing a shortage of professionals with the expertise, training, and motivation needed to deal with cyber criminals, and India is no exception. What we urgently need is the serious effort in capacity building and setting up high-end cyber labs that are capable of critically inspecting every IT component before these are deployed in critical infrastructure across industry sectors. There is an ever-growing threat to the economy, financial sector, key government departments and infrastructure set-up, which in turn leaves internal security at risk," said DS Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM.

Demonetisation has given an impetus to e-wallet services. Mobile wallets have witnessed a massive rise in app downloads. The result, well, leading mobile wallets have witnessed a growth upwards of 100 percent in-app download numbers and have similarly seen a 400 percent increase in wallet recharges, noted the study.

The study added, that cyber threats will only rise as India is seeing a shift towards a cashless economy. The types of cyber security incidents such as phishing, scanning, website intrusions and defacements, virus code and denial of service attacks will continue to grow.

The study has also pointed out that the number of incidents occurring in banking systems has increased in the last five years mostly in the month of October 2016 when an ATM card hack did hit Indian banks, affecting around 3.2 million debit cards.

Hence, efforts should be made to enhance cyber security as businesses and citizens embrace this new digital wave in the present time.