Securing India’s Cyberspace

GS Paper III:

Syllabus S&T developments and everyday applications & effects

Source: Indian Express

Directions: This Article highlights the looming threat in India’s cyber security and suggests a way forward to it. Go through it once. You can use it for value addition.

Context:  The world is moving towards an era in which the applications of quantum physics in strategic domains will soon become a reality, increasing cybersecurity risks.

What is the current threat to cyber security?

• Outdated protocols: Current protocols like the RSA will quickly become outdated.
  • This means that quantum cyberattacks can potentially breach any hardened target.
• Threat to digital infrastructure: China’s quantum advances expand the spectre of quantum cyberattacks against India’s digital infrastructure, which already faces a barrage of attacks from Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
  • Particularly worrying for India is the fact that China now hosts two of the world’s fastest quantum computers.
• India’s dependence on foreign, particularly Chinese hardware, is an additional vulnerability.

Ongoing Development in India?

• India is getting there slowly but steadily. In February 2022, a joint team of the DRDO and IIT-Delhi successfully demonstrated a QKD link between two cities in UP — Prayagraj and Vindhyachal.
• In 2019, the Centre declared quantum technology a “mission of national importance”.
• The Union Budget 2020-21 had proposed to spend Rs 8,000 crore on the newly launched National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications.
• The Army has collaborated with industry and academia to build secure communications and cryptography applications.

How to make India’s cyberspace resilient?

• Procurement from other nations: India must consider procuring the United States National Security Agency’s (NSA) Suite B Cryptography Quantum-Resistant Suite as its official encryption mechanism.
• Emulating cryptographic standards: the Indian defence establishment can consider emulating the cryptographic standards set by the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which has developed a series of encryption tools to handle quantum computer attacks.
• Develop quantum-resistant systems: India should start implementing and developing capabilities in quantum-resistant communications, specifically for critical strategic sectors.
• Funding: government can fund and encourage existing open-source projects related to post-quantum cryptography.
• Participating in the global initiative: India can participate in the Open Quantum Safe project — a global initiative started in 2016 for prototyping and integrating quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.
• Prioritising QKDs over long distances, especially connecting military outposts for sensitive communications, can be prioritised to ensure secure communications whilst protecting key intelligence from potential quantum cyberattacks.
• Diplomatic partnerships with other “techno-democracies” — countries with top technology sectors, advanced economies, and a commitment to liberal democracy — can help India pool resources and mitigate emerging quantum cyber threats.

India needs a holistic approach to tackle these challenges. At the heart of this approach should be the focus on post-quantum cybersecurity.

Insta Links

Prelims link

• Quantum computing
• About Quantum Supremacy.
• What is Sycamore?
• Quantum entanglement
• Difference between a standard computer and a quantum computer

Mains Links:

Q. What do you understand by Quantum computers and explain how will it revolutionize computing? (250 words)