Electronic data breaches are costing India dearly with losses incurred per capita owing to compromised record rising steadily over the past few years, says a new research.
Conducted jointly by IBM and Ponemon Institute — the research centre dedicated to privacy, data protection and information security policy — the study assumes significance in light of the recent banking data breach that compromised safety of more than 30 lakh debit cards across the country.
According to the study findings, the per capita cost incurred due to compromised record has inflated by 75 per cent in the past five years. The report said the cost of data breach went up from Rs. 2,106 in 2012 to Rs. 3,704 this year.
Speaking about the adverse impact of data leaks, Vaidyanathan Iyer, Business Unit Executive of IBM, said, “What the numbers don’t talk about is the intangible loss that comes with these leaks”.
“India had the highest percentage of data leaks due to a system glitch. Also, even though India’s per capita cost of a data breach was the lowest, it had the highest number of records compromised,” the Ponemon’s 2016 global analysis warns.
According to a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, cyber crimes in India grew 20 per cent in 2015 over 2014.
Data breach is emerging as a major concern for India. The case in point is the recent ‘Scorpene leaks’ that resulted in the publication of details of the submarine in an Australian newspaper. Such data breaches carry a price for national security.
In addition to this, the recent leak that made public 500 million Yahoo user accounts threatened individual security and damaged the commercial interests of the company.
India had the highest percentage of data leaks due to a system glitch, according Ponemon’s 2016 global analysis. Also, even though India’s per capita cost of a data breach was the lowest, it had the highest number of records compromised.
Indian legislation, too, is struggling hard to put a check on the rising breaches. The IT Act was amended in 2008 to help stop cyber crimes, while the National Cyber Security Policy was rolled out in 2013 by the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
The Reserve Bank of India recently released a cyber security framework for the banking industry, while the Securities and Exchange Board of India continues to strengthen cyber security for the stock market.
