IT hardware vendors reject govt step to curb cyberthreat

In a bid to increase cybersecurity awareness, government of India has proposed and asked computer hardware vendors sold in the country to include a cybersecurity brochure. However, this step is very timely, but at the same IT vendors are concerned it could give rise to logistical issues.

Kapil Sibal, India's communications and IT minister, took this move after a spate of cyberattacks on government web sites and the increasing concern among authorities to prepare against emerging cyberthreats. He had put forth a proposal to have every desktop computer, mobile phone, modem or USB stick to come pre-packaged with the "Cybersecurity Awareness Brochure".

Indian government's joint working group set up by the National Security Council Secretariat has decided to make it mandatory on the part of hardware sellers to provide cyber security awareness brochures while sale of such hardware.

Cyber security awareness in India is still at a lower level within the users including software and hardware manufacturers, vendors, sellers, redistributors, etc. Cyber warfare against India, cyber terrorism, cyber intelligence failure data security, critical infrastructure protection, cyber security laws etc must be handled by India on an urgent and priority basis.

While commenting on this proposal,Saurabh Grover , director , monitor business, AOC India, he said,"Being a display (Monitor) manufacturer, it is difficult for us to provide these brochures in our packages. Since we are selling multiple products, manufactured from multiple locations worldwide and these products are exported to other parts of the world from the same factories as well. It will be time taking, tedious and costly task for us to include such a brochure in every unit while packaging.

He also added, We always respect government laws and would appreciate, but in this case we would request government to look out for different possible efforts to create cyber security awareness. But, if government still feels this is the best way, we would abide by the decision.

As per some of the hardware vendors, they want government should also focus on some promotional activities through various mediums of media to get people aware of the cyber security threats in India. They can extract data base from banks and telecom companies and can send mailers to upper middle class and middle class customers for awareness.

Cyber law implementations should be strengthened and Cyber Cafes, Internet providers should be strict enough to allow internet access to the users.