Investments in digital infrastructure and cybersecurity are crucial for the tech sector in the Union Budget 2023. In addition to direct expenditure, the government is expected to enhance production-linked incentives for electronics manufacturing schemes in order to promote domestic manufacturing. The technology sector will be closely watching spending on digital public infrastructure, cyber security investments, skill development, and incentives to boost electronics manufacturing, as well as measures to improve ease of doing business, as the government prepares to present its FY2023-24 budget in a few weeks.
According to Gartner’s report, zero trust network access (ZTNA) will be the fastest-growing network security market sector globally. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.5 per cent between 2021 and 2026, increasing from $633 million to $2.1 billion globally.
Cybersecurity
To protect against a wide range of cyber threats, the technology sector has a significant need for cyber security spending. The amount and sensitivity of data saved and conveyed electronically grows as technology progresses and more firms transfer their operations online. As a result, cyber-attacks such as hacking, data breaches, and ransomware have made the IT industry a prime target.
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One of the key reasons for the need for cyber security spending in the tech sector is the increasing complexity of cyber threats. Today’s cyber burglars utilise modern techniques like artificial intelligence and machine learning to bypass traditional security measures and gain access to critical data. Organizations in the IT sector must invest in cutting-edge security technologies to stay ahead of these threats.
Sujit Patel, Founder, and CEO, SCS Tech, stated, “With the world moving to digital products and services, cybersecurity becomes very important for individuals and companies to take care of their digital assets like sensitive data, PII (Personally Identifiable Information), PHI (Protected Health Information), intellectual property to name a few.
While speaking about cybersecurity threats such as malware, spoofing, phishing, or third-party data breaches one should implement the minimum cybersecurity requirement as per their scenario, corporates should pay enough attention to the latest cyber security tools, security employees’ training, and education, controlling physical access to their digital data, in-time updates for the software; making proper backups of the information, and securing the internet connection.
As they say, “Prevention is better than cure”.
Mohit Gupta, Co-founder & CTO, IndiaP2P.com, stated, “With the rapid digitisation post covid era, we are seeing an increased incidence of cyber incidents with approx 10 per cent of such incidences targeting the BFSI sector.
Cyber threats and incidents are also changing with time. 2022 saw a shift of attacks towards Asia and largely India.
To deal with cyber threats, one has to understand the various stakeholders in the system, such as customers, employees, vendors, external software, and infrastructure.
One has to plug the vulnerabilities at each level after identifying all use cases. Sometimes, even the least expected area has some unplugged vulnerability that allows an attacker to cause massive harm to an organisation.
The threat actors nowadays are not only individuals but various groups and even governments who sponsor cyber-attacks on institutions of other countries.
The cyber security teams in the sector use the latest technology and tools to deal with cyber incidents. However, one area that still needs to be explored is sharing cyber threat intelligence across various institutions, law enforcement agencies, and regulatory bodies and coordinating the efforts to mitigate attacks.
This can help us learn from any incidents happening across the globe, and the steps to control them. This intelligence can help control most, if not all, threats for the future.”
