INDIA: A TWIST IN THE CYBER TALE

Chartered Insurance Institute Blog: August 5, 2021

https://thejournal.cii.co.uk/2021/08/05/india-twist-cyber-tale

In this blog for the Chartered Insurance Institute, I pickup a few threads from an action-packed cyber space as it heats up in India. Despite a small insured book (though growing) – the Indian cyber portfolio is under a spotlight. India moved up to become Asia’s most hacked (EMSOFT, July 2021). Cross border or intrastate; countries, companies or individuals – there is nowhere to hide. The future is about building a robust digital infrastructure. ‘The emergence of cyber mercenaries is one of the most worrying trends’, reminds Daryl Crockett, CEO ValidDatum. ‘What that allows is for funding to follow talent, just as it does in the commercial world, and you have a much faster speed to market’, she points out.

‘Senior executives and Boards will depend more on savvy cybersecurity leaders to inform their organisation’s security in line with its risk appetite’, highlight David Koh, Commissioner of Cybersecurity and Chief Executive of the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore and Nancy Luquette, S&P Global. To meet these needs, they say, the effective chief information security officer (CISO) must hone key skill sets to go from subject matter expertise to strategic leadership. Can or should the talent pipeline for cyber underwriter lag behind? There is always a growing case for carving out the cyber underwriting role from financial lines.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, perhaps never visualised the downside/s to an explosive growth of internet. ‘Wrap a cryptographic blockchain layer around the Internet to make it attributable’, prescribes david piesse, as did #Estonia. Perhaps that’s a vaccine to counter the cyber pandemic! Where and what next in Asia? Please hold your breath.