TAKING GUARD

Enterprises are adopting an all-round cybersecurity approach to deter cyberattacks, keep data safe and meet regulatory compliances

- NIDHI SINGAL

₹14,000 CRORE

THE VALUE OF INDIA’S CYBERSECURITY MARKET IN 2019

₹29,000 CRORE

THE ESTIMATED VALUE OF INDIA’S CYBERSECURITY MARKET IN 2025

DEMONETISATION AND Covid-19 have led to a surge in digital payments in India, with such transactions almost tripling over the past four years. With the amount of financial data being generated every second, and the stringent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines financial institutions have to adhere to, banks have been investing and adopting measures to keep hackers at bay and protect client and consumer data.

For example, to strengthen its internal network from multiple attempted security breaches, one of India’s largest public sector banks deployed a centralised policy server architecture to fortify its systems from unauthorised access. It picked Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager to secure access for its 260,000 internal users and their connected devices.

Not just banks, the need to have a holistic cybersecurity approach for businesses has become very crucial, given the soaring cyberattacks in Indian cyberspace. According to CERT-In, the national nodal agency that responds to computer security incidents, instances of cyberattacks in Indian cyberspace have gone up from 208,456 in 2018 to 1.15 million in 2020; this year, there have been 607,220 such incidents till June. The cost of a data breach has also increased. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average total cost of a data breach was ₹14 crore in 2020, an increase of 9.4 per cent from 2019; and the cost per lost or stolen record was ₹5,522, 10 per cent more than 2019.