India’s Cybersecurity Challenges: ICMR Data Breach and Increased Threats Amid Israel-Hamas Conflict
In its recent report, security firm Check Point highlighted emerging threats to India’s cyber security environment. The findings, along with an alarming data breach at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is currently under investigation, highlight the growing threats to critical infrastructure, raising urgent concerns about the country’s digital security.
Check Point’s analysis paints a grim picture of increasing cyber threats targeting India as well as other countries such as the United States (US), France and Italy.
It notes that India has seen a significant increase in cyber activity, fueled in part by the conflict between Israel and Hamas. These attacks, carried out mostly through DDoS operations and website defacement, have targeted a wide range of entities, from national infrastructure to the digital assets of individual political figures. It highlights how pro-Palestinian cyber-activists have expanded their reach beyond Israel and targeted countries considered to be Israel’s allies.
The group, known as “Cyber error system”, which often focuses its activities on Asia, especially India, has turned its attention to the region, using the prolonged battle as a pretext for its new attacks.
ICMR DATA BREACH
In the midst of this tumultuous cyber landscape, ICMR faced perhaps one of the biggest data breaches in the country’s history. The breach, which allegedly accessed the personal data of over 81.5 million Indians, sent shockwaves across the nation. It was first noticed by the US cyber security and intelligence service Resecurity.
According to experts, this case shows that robust cyber security measures are needed to protect critical infrastructure, but also sensitive personal data. The leak contained snippets of Aadhaar data that revealed the extent of the intrusion.
While the government has already ordered a thorough investigation led by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), this is not the first time India’s critical infrastructure has been targeted by threat actors.
A year ago, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) fell victim to a ransomware attack that forced the shutdown of its IT systems and exposed even the most prestigious institution’s vulnerability to critical data, including patient records and financial data. , was encrypted.
WHAT CERT-IN SAYS
CERT-In has also reported an alarming trend. In 2021, it handled 1,402,809 incidents, compared to 1,391,457 in 2022. These incidents included website intrusions, malware distribution, phishing, DDoS attacks, ransomware, data breaches, and more. Although the number of incidents has decreased compared to 2021, the scale of these threats shows the urgent need to strengthen India’s digital defenses.
The nodal agency under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology also reported that ransomware cases have increased in 2022, increasing by 51 percent compared to the previous year. Several sectors including IT, manufacturing, finance, education and transport felt the impact.
Such increasing cyber threats and the rapidly evolving cybersecurity environment require a proactive, collaborative approach to securing the nation’s future. As the digital battlefield expands, the need for effective action and awareness has never been more urgent.
