Global cybersecurity firms and industry experts have praised Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposal to set up Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to strengthen cybersecurity of the financial sector and check cyber frauds. Cybersecurity firms said, CERT for the financial services sector is aligned to the need of the hour.
“We especially appreciate the Computer Emergency Response Team to be setup post the budget announcement and dedicatedly monitor cyber hacks, ensuring the security and integrity of online data. The synergy created by these announcements, along with the efforts of cyber security solutions is going to inspire new users to come online, aiding India's transition to a digital economy,” said Amit Nath, who heads corporate business of SMB focused cybersecurity firm F-Secure in India.
Altaf Halde, managing director – South Asia for Kaspersky Lab said, “Post demonetisation the number of digital transactions have increased and so the concerns about cyber security. The decision to set up a CERT for financial sector will lead to greater collaboration between the technology companies and the banking system in the country. This will create more opportunities domestically for the IT and technology businesses in India and offer higher trust level for customers.”
“CERT reaffirms Digital India's long term commitment towards securing consumer's against cyber frauds. We believe that this initiative will help to strengthen security of the financial sector amid the increasing incidents of cyber frauds thereby protecting the consumers of various financial institutions,” said Surendra Singh – Country Director, Forcepoint.
Rostow Ravanan, CEO and managing director of Mindtree said, “It is a great initiative which will smoothen coordination between finance regulators.”
“A CERT specifically for the financial services sector is aligned to the need of the hour. Linking regulatory authorities (SEBI and RBI) will help in the development of more comprehensive guidelines and regulations for financial services companies,” said Sivarama Krishnan, leader- Cybersecurity, PwC India.
“We already have a Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-in) which reports to the ministry of electronics and IT. We will have to see how different this team will be from CERT-IN,” said Pradipto Chakrabarty, Regional Director, of CompTIA.
