Securing India in the Cyber Era

This book explores the geopolitics of the global cyber space to analyse India’s cyber security landscape. As conflicts go more online, nation-states are manipulating the cyber space to exploit each other’s dependence on information, communication and digital technologies. All the major powers have dedicated cyber units to breach computer networks, harvest sensitive data and proprietary information, and disrupt critical national infrastructure operations.

This volume reviews threats to Indian computer networks, analyses the country’s policy responses to these threats, and suggests comprehensive measures to build resilience in the system. India constitutes the second largest internet user base in the world, and this expansion of the user base also saw an accompanying rise in cyber crimes. The book discusses how the country can protect this user base, the data-dependent critical infrastructure, build resilient digital payment systems, and answer the challenges of the dark net. It also explores India’s cyber diplomacy, as an emerging economy with a large IT industry and a well-established technological base.

Topical and lucid, this book as part of The Gateway House Guide to India in the 2020s series, will be of interest to scholars and researchers of cyber security, digital diplomacy, foreign policy, international relations, geopolitics, strategic affairs, defence studies, South Asian politics and international politics.

Sameer Patil is Fellow for International Security Studies at Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. His research encompasses India’s national security priorities, cyber security, counterterrorism, and defence industrialisation. At Gateway House, Sameer has participated in the India-Canada Track 1.5 Dialogues and India-U.K. Track 1.5 Cyber Dialogue. Sameer has previously worked at the National Security Council Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi where he handled counter-terrorism, regional security and Kashmir desks. He was also part of the inaugural rounds of the India-U.S. and India-U.K. Strategic Intelligence Dialogues, after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He is also a dissertation advisor at the Indian Naval War College, Goa.

Sameer holds a PhD in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In 2019, he was a recipient of the Canberra Fellowship, awarded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. He was also the recipient of Junior Research Fellowship from the University Grants Commission for pursuing research in international relations. His views on Indian security issues have featured regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, CNBC, Reuters and other prominent news agencies.