PHDCCI Organised Conference on Cyber Laws & Cyber Security

Col. Abdul Hameed Khan, Commanding Officer, 7DG Battalion, while addressing PHDCCI’s Conference on Cyber Laws & Cyber Security held at PHD House, New Delhi said that Cyber crime is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. As per some estimates, the annual losses from Cyber crime presently were calculated to be 1- 3 trillion dollars which is equivalent to 1% of the entire global GDP. In the next two years, it can escalate to 10 trillion dollars which is 10% of the global GDP. He said that Cyber crime is growing faster than Global terrorism and global narcotics. Therefore, we all need to practice cyber hygiene, risk assessment and risk mitigation is required and that creating organizational structure, promoting collaboration and awareness would go a long way.

However, as we all move towards a digital economy, with the Artificial Intelligence emerging at a faster rate, the challenges of Cyber crimes are going to increase. Cyber war fare is a critical threat that has the potential to trigger conventional war fare. The National assets can be potential target because of the malware. Malwares such as phishing emails and malicious pop ups are a potential threat.

Prof. N K Goyal, President CMAI Association of India, shared his insightful thought on the topic and congratulated PHDCCI for organizing this conference for providing insights and solutions on the matter.

He said that with technological advancements, the chances of risks get increased. With the advent of data pricing in the future, there will be a heavy penalty if people fail to report a loss in database.

Hackers are not IT Professionals, they hack the human psychology. So exercising reasonable precautions such as not clicking malicious pop ups on our systems, uninstalling frivolous apps, would protect us from getting hacked, he added.

Mr. SK Sethi, Founder & CEO, Insurance Foundation of India, who has also authored the book – ‘1 Cyber Attack Can Ruin You Forever’, said that nowadays our mobile phones have several applications and tools such as – fax machine, calculator, payment systems, that also expose us more to Cyber crimes. This calls for reasonable caution to be exercised.

He gave examples of a few Company CEOs namely - Ms. Marissa Mayer - Yahoo, Mr. Gregg Steinhafel - Target, Mr. Richard Smith – Equifax, and mentioned how Cyber attack had resulted in the downfall of these successful CEO’s. Therefore, exercising due care in organisations goes a long way. He suggested solutions like - no personal emails should be permitted on official computers, organisations should have access to Cyber Consultants who can Cyber Audit the systems, companies should encourage the IT teams to attend trade shows and events so that they remain updated.

Mr. Khushhal Kaushik, Founder & CEO Lisianthus Tech, said that in India we might fail to implement the Zero Trust Architecture because we need 100% indigenous solutions and we have a scarcity of options. Without these solutions, it may help the hacker to identify and gather the technical and security framework easily.

Mr. Amit Dubey, Radio Host Red FM, Cyber Crime Investigator shared various practical insights, case studies and showcased how various websites track and record every single piece of information. He suggested how our devices could be protected from the hackers and the apps that should be avoided.

The conference was organized by the Law and Justice Committee of the Chamber chaired by Ms. Priya Hingorani, Senior Advocate and Co-chairs, Ms. Mohini Lalit Bhat, Advocate, Mr. Sarvesh Chowdhry, Advocate and Mr. Kirit Javali, Advocate Supreme Court of India.

The conference also witnessed well-attended participation from industry and legal fraternity.