The Hindu Business Line : Defence sector lagging behind in IT security

`Defence establishments need to implement a multi-layered security system that would include physical and logical access control systems, authentication and encryption'.

Mumbai , June 6

BUREAUCRATIC red tapism and lengthy decision-making cycles have led to a laggard state of affairs in the Indian defence's IT security purchases. India is yet to latch on to the `information warfare' concept. lagging far behind Western countries and even China, according to IT security experts.

Quoting defence reports, they stated that China had trained nearly 10,000 experts on information warfare techniques.

Officials of an IT security firm cited the instance of a leading Indian defence establishment that took nearly a year to finalise IT security purchases, even though the negotiation process had commenced much before this period.

According to experts, IT spends in the defence establishments are well budgeted.

"Even the average corporate is ahead in terms of IT security implementation. It must be understood that going ahead, the battle will not take place between two warring groups but would be played out on the communication infrastructure," Capt. Raghu Raman, CEO, Mahendra Special Services Group, told Business Line.

"After the attack on Parliament, the defence establishments have finally woken up to the importance of installing security devices such as perimeter access control systems including CCTVs and biometric scanners," Mr. Pramod Rao, MD, Zicom Electronic Systems Ltd, said.

Reacting to newspaper reports of stolen encrypted communication codes from the DRDO nine months ago and the codes remaining unchanged till date, security experts opined that defence establishments needed to implement a multi-layered security system that would include physical and logical access control systems, authentication and encryption.

"With the advent of electronic media for storing and transmission of confidential data, the methodologies and technologies used to secure this information have to evolve as well. Logical security such as electronic access control systems, authorised access, powerful encryption (read 128 bit) have to be utilised," Mr Peter Theobold, CEO, IT Secure, a security solutions firm, said.