Indigenization of cybersecurity is important in the interest of national security

Dr. Pronab Mohanty, IPS 
DGP (Cyber & ICT) - Government of Karnataka

"The indigenization of cybersecurity is crucial for ensuring national security, as it allows countries to protect themselves against both external and internal threats. Cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, originating from both expected and unexpected sources, from the ongoing conflicts around the world, we know what is the role that is being played by cyber attacks or cyber terrorism or through cyber weapons.

The importance of protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats has become increasingly apparent in conflicts around the world, such as in Ukraine, Israel, and the Middle East. Then the critical infrastructure protection, the security of critical infrastructures such as power grids, communication networks and financial systems is essential for any nation for maintaining national security and especially for India. In case we have elements from outside let's say from a particular company which belongs to a neighboring nation has plugin in these important infrastructures then either they might be compromised in terms of cyber surveillance or there might be a chance that these people might be collecting information. India is no exception to it. So, in the interest of National Security indigenization is important. 

Second, we should look at our economic stability indigenous cyber security protects businesses. It may be that some of our cyber security protocols may be primitive but once we start adopting them being a country that adapts very quickly, India can go to the next level to the state-of- the-art in terms of guarding our own cyber security or interest critical to cyber security. This is essential for economic continuity and safeguarding the interests.

One more thing in the economic field which is important for indigenization of cyber security is protection of intellectual property. India has got such a huge pool of talented manpower in IT that can be easily progressed to increase or evolve to include cyber security trained personnel as well."