By Dipesh Kaura
The budget for FY 2021- 22 was one with the aim to achieve and enhance our country's top priorities, by investing in the healthcare sector and major infrastructures. Enhanced healthcare systems, extensive research and development, and major infrastructure developments are definitely the need of the hour and have been effectively taken care of by the budget allocation set by Finance Minister.
The goal to empower 15000 schools and adapt to a hybrid education model is also a very promising step taken towards the digital transformation of the country. However, to make this a success, securing the hybrid education system is equally important, especially in the near future. While pursuing a hybrid model of learning (in-person and remote), the educational sector continues to attract the attention of cybercriminals on the Internet.
From July to December 2020, 270,171 users globally encountered various threats disguised as popular learning platforms—an increase of 60% when compared to the first half of 2020. These numbers state the growing need for cybersecurity and why it is important to build a robust and secure digital infrastructure for the education sector.
Similarly, cybersecurity tools will also be needed for the seamless functioning of advanced technologies like deep analytics and artificial intelligence that the government plans to use to identify tax evaders, fake billers and for the digital census.
The newer technologies can be used considerably for sectors like BFSI, healthcare, education, and can help in extensive R&D, provided that they are used with utmost security so as to avoid their misuse by cybercriminals who are capable of creating more chaos than one can expect.
It will be interesting to see India's education and other sectors further progressing towards digitalisation in the next 1-2 years, and cybersecurity experts and companies like us will be glad to help the country secure this digital future at every step taken forward.
The author is General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia). Views are personal.
