An IIT Kharagpur alumnus, Binod is a seasoned IT industry veteran with three decades of experience handling over 10 million identity lifecycles and delivered thousands of IAM implementations for numerous large conglomerates globally.

The Indian cybersecurity landscape is undergoing a serious transformation in recent times driven mainly by the geopolitical situations within and outside the country. Earlier, there lacked a proper understanding of cybersecurity and the kind of practice to have in place due to lack of proper education and awareness among the general public. But today, the kind of improvements that we witnessed in other countries over 10-15 years is now being done in mere 2-3 years in India. Also, governing bodies of the BFSI sector such as RBI, IRDAI and SEBI have rolled-out numerous strict guidelines and regulatory frameworks pertaining to cybersecurity over the last 18 months, with their security and compliance audits becoming more stringent than ever before. Furthermore, critical industries such as manufacturing and retail are now aspiring to keep their quality at par with global standards in order to foray into other countries, resulting in those industries to become globalized and grow exponentially. This has been another primary factor that is changing the cybersecurity ecosystem in the country.

Emerging Tech Trends in Cybersecurity

Of late, the adoption of cloud technology among Indian enterprises is at an all-time high. While the banking sector showed a reserved approach towards cloud adoption few years ago, today, even a conservative organization such as the RBI is promoting the adoption of cloud in the BFSI sector. However, despite the humongous benefits that cloud offers, one must not forget the plethora of cybersecurity risks & challenges that it brings in. Secondly, remote working practices which became mainstream post the COVID-19 pandemic are now exposing organizations to a unique set of security threats. As a result, enterprises today look at their perimeter security from an entirely new viewpoint, wherein the employees' identity is the perimeter or the front line of defense against cyber-attacks instead of the network firewalls.

Additionally, the digitization of the supply chains has been raising a lot of concerns lately in terms of cybersecurity. Another key technology that is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape in recent times is artificial intelligence. Although there are still a lot of apprehensions around the adoption of AI in cybersecurity space, soon, it is expected not only to disrupt the way cybersecurity is approached so far, but also pose serious challenges for companies worldwide due to the immense power and capabilities it offers, which is also easily accessible for cyber criminals as well.

Given the software-driven nature of cybersecurity, the government must come-up with programs that targeted specifically towards supporting the startups engaged in software and cybersecurity R&D

Startups Role in Cybersecurity Innovation

Despite being among the biggest and most quickly developing startup hubs in the world today, there are still only a handful of startups in the Indian cybersecurity space. The primary reason for this has been the country still lagging behind in adopting of cybersecurity technologies as compared to its western counterparts. Currently, we are only purchasing the products/solutions from developed countries and implementing them here. As a result, we can see very meager development of indigenous cybersecurity solutions over the last decade due to lack of quality education around cybersecurity and the dearth of skilled manpower within the country.

While this is indeed concerning, it opens-up a host of opportunities for modern day startups to innovate and come-up with new technologies and solutions. Recognizing this, the government too has launched numerous support schemes and incentive programs for startups in recent times. However, these initiatives majorly comprise of funding or financial support for the hardware equipment required for R&D, and there is very less being done in terms of supporting the software R&D in India. Given the almost entirely software-driven nature of cybersecurity, it is paramount for the government to come-up with programs that are targeted specifically towards supporting the startups engaged in software and cybersecurity R&D. Additionally, the government must encourage the usage of cybersecurity solutions from Indian startups among all the government bodies and agencies.

The Way Forward

Going forward, I expect the government to view cybersecurity as a super-specialized area and form councils or committees comprising of experts from the industry, the government and other concerning regulatory bodies that are specifically focused at supporting and nourishing the entire cybersecurity ecosystem within the nation. Also, we are also seeing an increasing number of cybersecurity companies from across the world foray into India and develop products & solutions here to be a part of and capitalize on the Make in India initiative. While this trend is expected to gain further momentum in the coming days, there is an immediate need for more scrutiny to ascertain which among these companies are actually making in India and which aren't. This will no doubt boost the indigenous startup innovation in the cybersecurity arena and enable India to make its mark on a global level.