Are we waiting for cyber earthquake before getting our act together, says NCSC

National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) Lt Gen (retd) Rajesh Pant on Monday raised concern over the lack of cyber-infrastructure in the country and said are we waiting for a cyber earthquake before getting our act together.

"As the national cybersecurity coordinator, this is a cause of concern for me," Pant said.

Pant said that India did not have a dedicated department for disaster management before the year 1993 and that it was only after the Latur earthquake, in which over 10,000 people died, that the government decided to set up an authority for the same.

"Before 1993 does anyone know which ministry was handling disaster management in India? It was the Ministry of Agriculture... However, 10,000 Indians died in the 1993 Latur earthquake. That is when we realized that the Agriculture Ministry could not handle it," he said.

"We gave it to the National Disaster Authority, which today has a presence in every state. There are disaster response forces and whenever disaster takes place they are there for the action. Are we waiting for the cyber earthquake to strike before our act gets together?" Pant added.

He said that there is an absence of quantum roadmap and that there is no visibility in the quantum efforts and lack of skill power.

"As you are aware India is aiming to become a 5 trillion economy by the year 2024, for which we require a certain rate of growth," he added.

Pant said that we are finding that the global average of 2.5 per cent GDP is being affected due to cybercrimes.

"This is a concern as a nation that cybercrime is taking it (GDP) back, then our mission will be difficult to achieve. This is where the quantum computing technology and quantum cryptography takes place," he added.