Alarming rising trend in cyber attacks endangers national security. Explain with examples. Elaborate the need for establishing a dedicated cyber security force to deal with the issue.

(1) AIIMS attack - which led to disruption of services for around a week (2) Maharashtra Power outage issue (3) Recently CBI has warned states against spread of a malware Cerberus (used in financial frauds), etc

The reason for increase in cyberattacks (1) Increase in Globalisation → increase interdependence → world has shifted from conventional to Hybrid warfare eg!-Russia-Ukraine conflict

(2) Emergence of technologies like - AI & Machine learning has made these attacke easy (3) vulnerabilities & Trapdoors in the electronic devices, etc (4) Loopholes in cybersecurity policy

Need for dedicated cybersecurity force:-

India's National cybersecurity policy of -2013 provided for a dedicated cadre of 5 lakh personnel to work for cybersecurity.

(1) This is required to ensure rapid response during cyber attack (2) The action currently is performed by overburdened police force. (3) Cyber attackes are very sophisticated and thus requires trained proffessionals.

(4) This will help ensure a 24x7 surveillance (5) Protect our critical information infrastructure. (6) This will ensure → security → synergy → strengthening of Indian cyberspace (7) It will have a deterrence impact on attackers (8) This will not only help prevent such attack but in case of attacks - it may help restore the data.