“In every ten minutes, one Cyber Crime takes place in NCR” shared Cyber Security Experts during a Panel Discussion at Amity

New Delhi: As a run-up to upcoming Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS) 2017- an initiative by the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology, Amity Business School organized a Panel Discussion- “Challenges in Cyberspace” at Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noida.

The esteemed panelists for the Panel Discussion included Ms. Akanksha Gupta- Inspector, CBI; Mr. Pawan Duggal, Advocate specializing in the field of Cyber Law & E-Commerce Law; Mr. Rakshit Tandon -Cyber Security Expert and Consultant; Col Pankaj Verma – Cyber Warrior, TCG Digital and Dr. J. S. Sodhi -Vice President & CIO-Amity Education Group and Executive Director-Cyborg Cyber Forensics & Information Security Pvt Ltd.

Dr. Sanjeev Bansal – Dean -Faculty of Mgmt. Studies / Director-Amity Business School, AU welcomed the distinguished speakers and thanked them for taking out time from their busy schedules to enlighten the students.
Mr. Rakshit Tandon -Cyber Security Expert and Consultant, while sharing interesting facts and figures, stated that in every ten minutes, one Cyber-Crime takes place in NCR and in 2017, over 22,782 cybercrime related complaints have been lodged in just 6 months in India. He revealed that majority of offenders of Cybercrime are youth and college going students. Today, even a 6th grader knows how to hack a Wi-fi. He shared that now- a days every offender claims himself to be an ethical hacker whereas there is nothing called ethical hacker, as per the law of the country. Expressing his concern, he stated that most of the children and young people in the country are not even aware of Cyber laws. He suggested, “In India, we need to empower young people and apprise them with – “Offence”, “Defense” and “Response” .The technology needs to be updated regularly in order to ensure that the websites are not prone to hacking. When we talk about Digital India, it should be Safer Digital India.”

Ms. Akanksha Gupta- Inspector, CBI opined that Police in all States should have technologic expertise and Law Enforcement Agencies should have precise, technical and dedicated wings for tackling cyber warfare.

Addressing the gathering on the topic of the Panel Discussion, Col Pankaj Verma – Cyber Warrior, TCG Digital stressed that security is never 100% and even big organizations such as Linkedin, with safe and secure and processes, have been hacked. He opined that a lot has been done in the area of Cyber warfare in India and still lot needs to be done. He shared that security products used in India are not indigenously manufactured right from chips to hardware and software; the entire ecosystem is not in our control. He averred that the very critical systems of our country are riding on the same ecosystem. He commented that Cyber warfare is very cheap as compare to physical wars on borders between countries and therefore, smaller countries are spending millions of dollars in this asymmetric warfare. He stressed that with IOT and everything becoming Smart- Smartphone, Smart Tv, Smart AC and even smart Cities, we fail to realize that everything Smart is susceptible to exploitation. He expressed that automating everything without understanding, is not smart; smart is understanding the challenges new technologies bring along with them and working on the same.

Mr. Pawan Duggal, Advocate specializing in the field of Cyber Law & E-Commerce Law, while sharing his views, cautioned the students that they themselves are responsible for the privacy of their data and advised them to share their photos and private moments very cautiously on social networking sites since the value of data per person is around one paisa which includes critical information such as a person’s name, address, occupation and salary related details. He informed that anything which is digital and electronic is covered under Cyber Law and there are legal ramifications of whatever one does. He called upon the students to be safe and secure and constantly learn and unlearn throughout their lives to stay ahead of others.

Sharing his views, Dr. J. S. Sodhi -Vice President & CIO-Amity Education Group and Executive Director-Cyborg Cyber Forensics & Information Security Pvt Ltd stated that Cyber Security and Cyber Threat are not new; it’s just that these subjects are not given much importance. He stressed “We all know and acknowledge Cyber Threats but we think only big organizations are attacked by hackers. If ,we, as individuals have not experienced cyber- crime, it does not mean that we are not susceptible to it”.

Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS) 2017 will be hosted for the first time in India in November 2017, New Delhi to further promote Digital India Mission of Honorable Prime Minister. GCCS mainly aims to bring together Governments, Private sector and civil society to discuss norms for responsible behavior and promote practical cooperation in cyberspace.