Global Cyber Security Index (GCI) 2020
Recently, the ‘Global Cyber Security Index (GCI)’ for the year 2020 has been released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations on information and communication technology.
Key points of the index:
- The ‘Global Cyber Security Index’ is a reliable indicator to measure the commitment of various countries to cyber security at the global level.
- Under this index, countries are assessed on the basis of 5 pillars – ‘Legal, Technical and Organizational Measures, Capacity Development and Cooperation to Form Composite Scores’.
- Under this, 82 questions were asked from different countries, on the basis of which 20 indicators were measured.
Performance of different countries in the index
- India has been ranked tenth in the ‘Global Cyber Security Index’ for the year India was ranked 47th in the year 2019 and 2018.
- India has been ranked fourth in the Asia-Pacific region. Neighboring countries China and Pakistan have been ranked 33 and 79
Countries in the top 5 places in the index:
- United States
- UK and Saudi Arabia
- Estonia
- South Korea, Singapore and Spain
- Russia, UAE and Malaysia
Common cyber security challenges before countries:
- The digital gap between different countries creates an unsustainable environment in the cyber sector.
- The increasing digital dependence around the world in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed digital inequalities that must be addressed through capacity building.
- Cyberspace is skillfully used by terrorists to propagate their ideology and spread hatred.
Measures being taken by India to tackle cyber security threats:
- India is working on its ‘First Cyber Security Strategy’. Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) is the agency responsible for coordinating and supporting the response to computer security incidents at the national level.
- Sometime back ‘Online Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ has been started. On this portal, complaints related to child pornography / child sexual abuse material, images of rape / gang rape or sexually-representative material can be reported.
- Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) is being set up to deal with the issues related to cyber crime in the country in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
- Apart from this, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center (NCIIPC) has been established for the protection of critical information infrastructure in the country.
Source – The Hindu
