The topmost officials of Russia-based global cybersecurity solutions provider, Kaspersky said that India is high on their agenda as industrial units in the country are expected to go in for greater automation and hence get exposed to bigger cyber threats that may disrupt the operations of critical infrastructure.
During the three-day conference on Industrial Cyber Security, Vladimir Dashchenko, ICS CERT Vulnerability Research, Kaspersky, said, “India is in a very great stage of development and is of great importance to Kaspersky.”
“Smart cities, energy companies, industrial units engaged in providing critical infrastructure, new generation cars face different types of cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Disruptions in services caused by cyber-attacks can be expensive. Hence it would be imperative for them to guard against such vulnerabilities,” he further said.
Dashchenko expressed his regret while saying that many companies engaged in providing key infrastructure services are not yet fully alive to the cyber threats that have the potential to cripple the control systems causing physical and financial damages.
He said, “The people ought to be educated what he termed as ‘cyber hygiene’. These would include simple steps like adopting difficult passwords, changing them frequently, updating software etc. These steps can help in effectively dealing with cyber threats that one might face in day-to-day life, he added.
Andrey Doukhvalov, Head of Future Technologies, Chief Strategy Architect, Kaspersky elaborating on the cyber threats and cautioned that Asia-Pacific region was ‘not on the safe side of the cyber threat’ and need to take adequate steps to guard against vulnerabilities.