No authentic report to indicate data breach higher in India: Ahluwalia

The government today said it has no authentic report suggesting that data breach is higher than the global average in India.

"No such authentic report is available with the government indicating that data breach in the country is higher than the global average," Minister of State for Electronics and IT S S Ahluwalia told the Rajya Sabha.

The minister's response came to a query on whether incidents of data breach in the country are higher than the global average.

Last month, Thales, a Rafale aircraft vendor, issued a report which stated data breach incidents in India have been higher compared to the global average.

The report said around 52 per cent of Indian respondents surveyed by the firm reported a data breach last year which was way above the global average of around 36 per cent.

Around 75 per cent of respondents in India reported data breach at some time in the past, compared with just 67 per cent globally, the Thales report said.

It claimed to be based on global survey of over 1,200 senior IT security managers, including 100 in India between October-November 2017. Thales official claimed that Indian companies with revenue in the range of USD 100 million to 1 billion were covered in the study.

In a separate reply on cyber crimes including fraud of money, using banks cards and e-wallets, Ahluwalia said a total of 10, 18 and 26 cases were registered under credit and debit Card fraud during 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively, according to information received from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

He said the government has taken a number of steps to strengthen cyber security in the country which include botnet cleaning and malware analysis centre to detect and clean infected systems in coordination with the internet service providers and industry.

The minister mentioned steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well for strengthening digital payments security. The RBI has issued cyber security framework in banks on June 2, 2016, which includes section on arrangement for continuous surveillance in banks and also covers best practices pertaining to various aspects of cyber security.

"An inter-disciplinary standing committee on cyber security at RBI reviews the threats inherent in the existing and emerging technology and suggests appropriate policy interventions to strengthen cyber security and resilience," Ahluwalia said.