Forbes India – August 4, 2017

August 4, 2017 forbes india | 33

a

lackadaisical approach

towards cyber

hygiene—exhibited

both by individuals

and companies—including failure

to change passwords frequently or

updating a computer’s operating

system with the latest software

updates can add to a system’s

vulnerability. For instance, the

WannaCry attack impacted only those

machines running on Microsoft’s

Windows operating system that

had not installed a security patch

released by the company.

Its susceptibility to malware

attacks and relatively lower cyber

hygiene awareness make India a

logical choice for companies providing

security solutions. For instance,

India is one of only eight countries

in the world where Microsoft

has a cybersecurity centre, which

helps enable governments and

private sector enterprises to build

awareness and access to security

experts to “anticipate, and not just

react, to security issues”, says Anant

Maheshwari, president, Microsoft

Corp India. Separately, Microsoft

also has a cybersecurity engagement

centre in India that operates in

affiliation with its Digital Crimes

Unit (DCU), which helps identify and

solve cybercrimes with the help of

law enforcement agencies and bring

cybercriminals to justice in a court

of law. “Cybersecurity will always

be a focus area for us. We invest

more than a billion dollars each year

globally to ensure security, privacy,

and compliance in our products

and services,” says Maheshwari.

The Indian arm of Microsoft’s

DCU, led by Meenu Chandra, a

senior attorney who specialises in

intellectual property, participates in

the company’s efforts to collaborate

with peers worldwide to take down

botnets (a family of malware worms

that infect a network of computers).

A so-called sinkhole (also known

as a honeypot)—the parallel clone

of an existing computer network to

which the source of the malware

is attracted—is used to trap the

botnet and identify its location; law

enforcement agencies then zero in on

the criminal and capture him/her.

But the DCU’s role doesn’t end

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LATVIA

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RANK

9

US

2

MEXICO

28

URUGUAY

29

10

5

16

17

15

12

26

8

18

24 30

27

14

25

OMAN

4

20

8 32

21

22

23

JAPAN

11

3

1

7

19

13

MAURITIUS

6

RUSSIA

EGYPT

NETHERLANDS

UK

IRELAND

BELGIUM

SWEDEN

11

NORWAY

SWITZERLAND

AUSTRIA

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KOREA

South atlanticOcean

North atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean

Global cybErsEcurity iNdEx 2017

the global Cybersecurity Index (gCI), released by the uN telecommunications agency International

telecommunication union (Itu), measures the commitment of countries to cybersecurity