What cybersecurity attacks are rolling into today's Digital India? How do I secure Digital India's data?

Unless you are a hermit living in the Himalayas, the advent of digitalization has undoubtedly made life easier and more convenient. However, despite various benefits, technological improvements have unleashed a slew of concerns, with cybersecurity attacks being the most prominent. According to Indusface's State of Application Security Report, India has witnessed a substantial rise in the number of cyberattacks in the first three months of 2023 and is still seeing an increase.

A cyberattack is an action intended to change, delete, or steal data from a computer or any component of a computerized information system, as well as to exploit or harm a network. Thus, to safeguard the data of today's digital population, businesses have adopted various cybersecurity measures. While there are dozens of cybersecurity attacks, let's delve into the most notable ones that are rolling in today's Digital India and how they can be prevented.

Phishing Attacks: The most common type of cyber assault is phishing, in which attackers attempt to deceive users into disclosing sensitive information, such as login passwords or financial information, by portraying themselves as trustworthy entities via emails, messages, or websites. According to an IBM analysis, phishing assaults are the most common sort of attack in India, accounting for approximately 22% of breaches. As a result, in order to protect from the theft, it has become critical to constantly update the password as well as scrutinise the received email or message. Furthermore, using an anti-phishing toolbar before becoming a sinking ship is strongly recommended.

Ransomware: Ransomware is a sort of cyber-extortion in which a victim's data is encrypted and rendered inaccessible until a ransom is paid. Users are instructed on how to obtain the decryption key by paying a fee. These attacks, which are frequently carried out to extort money, can cause major inconvenience to organisations and individuals. Thus, to avoid such attacks, one must keep their operating system fixed and up-to-date to guarantee they have fewer vulnerabilities to attack. Installing genuine software or granting it administrative privileges unless organisations know exactly what it is and what it does can also help protect them from such assaults.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: In today's ever-changing world, DDoS assaults have become a significant source of theft for businesses. In this case, fraudsters overwhelm a website or online service by flooding it with a high volume of traffic, rendering it unreachable to genuine users. To prevent such an attack, do a traffic analysis to identify malicious traffic and comprehend warning indicators such as network slowdowns, intermittent website shutdowns, and so on. In addition, by outsourcing DDoS prevention to cloud-based service providers, business can create an incident response strategy to safeguard their data from theft.

Prevention is better than cure!

In today's ever evolving era, cybersecurity attacks are increasing at a breakneck pace. Thus, by taking a proactive and comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, "Digital India" can protect its data, infrastructure, and inhabitants from cyber threats while still reaping the benefits of technology in a safe and secure manner.

Author: Ratan Dargan, Co-founder & CTO at ThoughtSol Infotech Pvt. Ltd.