Indigenous manufacturing key to cyber security

In the 21st century, people have become increasingly dependent on technology for all their needs. With the current Government’s vision of ‘Digital India’ the country seems to be making way for a highly connected world. With the dependency on technology also comes a thought on being protected by cyber attacks. We need to build and focus on electronics policies that push for indigenous manufacturing of critical hardware systems. While India has proven its mettle in the software industry, the hardware sector needs to at the forefront of all efforts. Countries like China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan have a capable manufacturing sector and we also need to reduce our import dependency by strengthening our domestic manufacturing capabilities and also preventing an attempt on the breach of security for any critical services.

Today, all our strategic installations in Stock exchanges, banks, electrical grids, defence, railways and IT companies are dependent on telecom networks and computers. We are dependent on outsourced hardware products thus making ourselves prone to vulnerabilities. Where do these vulnerabilities come from? Trapdoors or Trojan horses can be planted in any hardware. Trapdoors are simply handful lines of codes comprising instructions for the system which could respond in a particular way under certain circumstances. Hackers might plant these trapdoors to a simple device like a PC to access it remotely and even extract all data from it. This may even enable them to hear conversations remotely.

A large number of our country’s telecom networks are dependent on Chinese networking components. In case of routers and switches being compromised, such networks and even connected electric grids can be brought down remotely. It was believed that China has always been a threat due to their large telecom companies and range of products. However, Genn Greenweld, a Guardian newspaper reporter has written in detail based on documents provided by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden that the American company Cisco's products exported from the U.S. may have been compromised by NSA where they have shown pictures of Cisco hardware being opened and spyware being installed by NSA.

In order to protect our economy and the country’s interests, we need to focus on domestic manufacturing of our own critical networking products rather than importing them. With initiatives like ‘Make in India’ the Indian Government is building an ecosystem for indigenous manufacturing of hardware but this also needs to be executed and backed fully by all other stakeholders. The Government should identify collaborations that can accelerate the efforts in this direction. We should also give importance to designing and developing as there are many such opportunities that exist in the country which need to be identified to build a strong manufacturing base driven by innovation. India is a large country and hence our domestic demand is large. The country should aim to manufacture not just critical networking products but also build on the overall manufacturing capabilities for various sectors.

With advancements in technology like cloud computing and mobile technologies, social media etc it is crucial more than ever to build a robust ecosystem of cyber security to protect our nations interests. The Government needs to increase and build its level of preparedness given the real threat of cyber security looming over technologically advanced countries. Critical services like telecommunications, defence, aviation and energy should be the focus and besides policy interventions, proper budgets should also be allotted to work towards a secure cyberspace.

Image credit: Indiatimes