Securing critical corporate and national infrastructure

Securing critical corporate and national infrastructure should be looked at beyond installing security software to reverse engineering viruses and tracing their origins
Zaki Qureshi
Zaki Qureshey, Founder and Managing Director, E2Labs laid all the cards on the table with his remarks at the Tech Sabha saying that 100% security was impossible. He dismissed the notion that security was about putting up a firewall. Rather, it was about securing everything from the core to the outside, which he reckoned was not the case in government enterprises. “100% security is not possible, it would be akin to living in a cave,” he said. Pointing out that security threats had evolved considerably from the days of the ‘I love you’ virus to the recent Stuxnet, he said that government enterprises were still not taking the concept of security seriously. Asserting that the next level of warfare would happen on the cyber front, he said that Pakistani and Chinese hackers have been known to hack into Indian government systems and data (such as DRDO information). According to a Canadian research center, the entire Government of India data residing on Indian Web sites had been compromised, including that of the Prime Minister’s Office. “India has ambitions of becoming a superpower by 2050 but it does not figure in the top 10 when it comes to securing its digital infrastructure,” said e2labs founder. If things were to continue going the way that they are, India could not dream of becoming a superpower, he added. “I am not advocating that we follow any existing cyber security system, which by itself has not worked for any country including the US, for example Wikileaks. However, we have enough intelligence and manpower to design systems that meet our needs and are inexpensive,” he said. Qureshey’s concerns stemmed from the fact that the collateral damage inflicted by cyber threats is estimated at $1.4 trillion, currently. This figure exceeds that of the total war damages incurred in World War I and II put together. Pointing out that Chinese hackers are one of the emerging threats to India (besides other countries like the US), he said that it was time that the Indian government looked at things like reverse engineering viruses, tracing their origins and constantly updating against future attacks as the road ahead. He asked the government to look at questions like why do these attacks originate, where do they originate, was it a zero day attack, etc. All these questions had to be asked and an answer readily formulated to prepare for current and future needs, he said.

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For this, he mentioned that security awareness was the key. Flaying false teaching methodologies incorporated by the majority of cyber security firms, he said that these programs should look beyond current employment needs to adopting the correct methodologies, that can sit with national idealism and entrepreneurial opportunities. Advocating open source as the way ahead for India, zaki qureshey said that the country could take a lead in managing its security infrastructure that could go a long way towards national security as compared to the hotch potch proprietary security infrastructure that the government was using at present.