Frequency of cyber attacks up by 23 per cent in India in a year: KPMG report

A recent report, prepared by top international consultants, KPMG, has said that an alarming 72 per cent of company leaders in India, up from 49 per cent a year ago, have said that they have faced “some sort of a cyber attack over the past year, indicating an increase in the volume of attacks.”
The sharp 23 per cent rise in the number of respondents pointing towards cybercrime on companies, however, is not the only cause of concern. The report, titled “Cybercrime Survey Report 2015”, says that “Cyber incidents have not only risen sharply in 2015, the trend is more towards cybercrime with financial motives.”
Thus, while this year 63 per cent respondents said that cybercrime has led to financial crime, about the same numbers, 65 per cent, say it has been carried out to target financial gains. A similar report a year ago said that 45 per cent respondents -- about 20 per cent less -- thought cybercrime was carried out to target financial loss.
The report adds, 46 per cent respondents believe that corporate espionage has been the motive for cybercrime, and 45 per cent “mentioned theft of sensitive information” as the cause.
The report comments, if cybercrime was only perceived as a “malaise, impacting large companies and multinational corporates who have their presence in the western hemisphere”, now “Indian companies are increasingly being targeted”.
“This spurt”, says the report, “has been on account of the following factors: increase in the number of people accessing the internet; increase in number of smartphone users; and Dawn of path-breaking transacting platforms such as m-commerce, mobile banking and mobile wallets.”

Dishing our more data, the report states, “65 per cent respondents indicated that email servers are likely targets for cybercrime, while 46 per cent identified end user systems as targets”.
It adds, “The year 2015 has witnessed an increase in spear phishing attacks targeted at email systems to defraud companies by redirecting foreign remittances/ payments to money mule accounts of hackers.”
Pointing towards poor state of cyber security of Indian companies, the report says, “74 per cent respondents stated that a detailed annual IT and cyber risk assessment is not carried out”, adding, “Cyber risk assessment is not a focussed area for most of the enterpises across functions and people” because the “the focus is only on technology.”
It goes on to state, “78 per cent respondents stated that they do not have a cybercrime incident response plan, while 62 per cent do not have a governance process to log and monitor IT events on their critical systems.” It adds, “72 per cent respondents indicate that the number of cyber response organisations are inadequately equipped, given the level of cybercrimes.”
It also states, “68 per cent respondents stated that they do not have Security event management and incident management (SIEM) system to support cybercrime incident detection, analysis, and 61 per cent do not have data leakage with reference to prevention tools installed on servers and end user systems.”
The survey, which is based on an interview of 2,500 company leaders, claims to provide “the industry with a reference point that sheds light on key aspects of cybercrime in terms of industry perception, affected areas of the organisation, and impact and responsive measures that companies have taken.”
The survey was conducted by using web-based forms and personal interviews, with participants attached with important sectors such as oil and gas, infrastructure and government, IT and ITeS, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and retail, and telecom.
“There is a significant spurt in cybercrimes across enterprises and it is of paramount importance for management to realise that these are no longer a one-time phenomenon”, the report says.
It adds, “The nature of cybercrime is constantly evolving, specifically with attackers having a solid arsenal of the ever evolving stealth attack”, with 94 per cent believing “cybercrime is one of the major threats being faced by organizations”.

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog