According to the sources, the Indian government is considering the establishment of the defensive firewall at the national level for protecting data servers of state owned banks and companies. The contemplated action is a defensive measure against cyber attacks against India's key institutions where data sensitivity is very high. After the recent global ransomware attacks that affected various countries and led to data destruction and blackmail demands, the government is considering this step as a defensive measure, according to the sources.
According to one of the officials, "A meeting was held which was attended by some senior members of the ministry of electronics and information technology and (cyber security chief) Gulshan Rai","Pros and cons of a national firewall were discussed at the meeting." After the Petya or Petwrap attacks, the meeting held in June. However, the scientists at the ministry of electronics and information technology Gulshan Rai and AK Garg, didn't respond to queries.
"One point which was raised in the meeting was mistrust of multinationals of such a firewall since their sensitive data could be monitored by a country," said of the official. Many international companies and banks have reservations about operating in countries where they fear data could be compromised.
Cybercrimes on state infrastructure have increased in the last two years, said the person. "State-owned companies, banks and government websites and servers would first be protected by the national firewall."
"What India needs is not just a post-incident reaction but proactive monitoring and defense mechanisms against cyber attacks, whether state sponsored or by hackers," said Amit Jaju, partner, cyber forensics, data analytics, EY.
"There is a spike in the cyber attacks emanating from countries in the last few years, and while these attacks are planned, they take an opportunity of an incident and happen around that time," said Altaf Halde, MD for South Asia at Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cyber security and anti-virus provider. "While a firewall may be able to give some protection, but the way we use the internet, the attackers may be able to bypass these protections, and so it is important to have a multi-layered protection."