Cyber security integral to national security: Amit Shah

Shah also cited the data on the increasing number of cyber crimes being reported in the country

With digital footprints expanding leading to unseen challenges, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said cyber security is integral to national security as some countries are nurturing cyber armies to destabilise others by targeting critical infrastructure.

Addressing the National Conference on Cyber Safety and National Security here, Shah said the challenges before experts and authorities will be to ensure cyber security at a time when more and more people are getting access to digital technology due to government’s efforts and data charges are coming down.

Cyber security is critical to India and without it, the country cannot move forward. Digital technology has reached the grassroots and if cyber security is not enforced, it will become a huge challenge, he said adding India's progress is not possible without cyber security,” he said.

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“Cyber security is linked to national security. We have seen cyber attacks on us from those quarters who do not want us to develop. Some countries even have cyber armies. We need to ensure that we have a foolproof cyber security plan. We need to be aware of what new challenges will emerge,” he said.

Explaining the increasing footprint of digital activities, Shah said in the 2021-22 fiscal, the transactions through UPI have crossed one trillion dollars and India tops the list of countries in digital transactions.

Emphasising that misuse of cyber space is not new, he said people face various kinds of cyber crimes like malware attacks, phishing, attacks on critical infrastructure, data theft, online economic frauds and child pornography among others.

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In 2012, he said reported cyber crimes were 3,377 and it has now risen to over 50,000 in 2020 while the cases that were not reported may be over one lakh. The cyber crime reporting portal has received 11 lakh complaints while social media related complaints are more than two lakh.

"This is going to increase in the coming days, because currently, 80 crore Indians are active online. This is a big number and as the prices of data go down, there will be more users," he said.

In such a scenario, he said, it is necessary that cyber infrastructure is secured.