2017 could be a year of cyberwars

December 14, 2016, 10:32 am IST Sandip Sen in What happens if? | India, politics, Tech | ET November 2016 will always be remembered for dramatic changes that affected the life of the 7 billion citizens of the world like never before. Apart from the US Presidential Elections, and India’s overnight demonetization there was a third event in November 2016 that was equally earth shaking but that did not grab media headlines. It was something that will affect, global politics, economics, oil and banking in the coming year and could be the tsunami to hit a rapidly changing world in 2017. The first hints of what the future holds in store for us came on 17 November 2016 when state sponsored terrorists reportedly from Iran placed a digital bomb that exploded destroying computer systems in six government entities including the Saudi Reserve Bank crippling transport and financial systems in the oil rich nation. The Shamoon malaware used by the Iranians were supposedly used in retaliation to a May attack by a self proclaimed Saudi hacker Da3s on the Statistical Center and Registration Office website of the Republic of Iran. The cyber wars between the two nations have been escalating ever since 2012 when the Shamoon malware destroyed 35,000 computer systems with a digital bomb in Saudi Aramco the world’s largest oil producer. The cyber attack on the Saudi central bank was however unprecedented as it manages not only the country’s huge foreign exchange reserves but also interfaces with global commercial banks and manages the electronic payments system for the nation. The malware updates the master boot record of a computer, rendering it inoperable and destroys the data logged within the system almost instantly. Cyber wars could be the flavour of 2017 and the Indian banking system and payments gateways could be a major target. The Bangaluru based hacker group Legion that shot into prominence by hacking the accounts of Rahul Gandhi, Vijay Mallya, Barkha Dutt and Ravish Kumar has reportedly told ET that they have targeted several several financial institutions which have weak security systems and plan to attack more in the future. However the right wing Indian hacker group Legion may not be the real threat to India’s banking system. The real attacks may come just before the financial year ends from hackers financed by the money laundering industry. It is well known that pornography, betting, gaming and money laundering are key drivers of the Internet and India’s recent tough attitude towards black money has posed problems for over a million Indians who possess money on which tax is not paid. From the small pop and mom store in your neighborhood to the big bad distillery owner evading excise duty and income tax operating through offshore companies in Mauritius, Singapore or Panama there are thousands guilty of avoiding taxes in India. So there will be plenty of tax evaders, lawyers and chartered accountants who are actually going to oppose digitization of the payments process in the implementation stage along with real estate developers, businessmen, corrupt Government servants apart from the gold and drug mafia. The cyber attacks against India hence may not generate from Pakistan or China or neighboring nations. The problem in India is that there is a enemy within ( not foreign attackers ) that could start of hacking at our vulnerable digital payment systems or electricity supply or transport network. You could call them as disgruntled citizens or cyber terrorists but they could be difficult to locate as you don't have to carry arms to set off a digital bomb. You have to just log into a computer system that cannot traced back to you and know how to create and set off a digital bomb. The year 2017 could be the year of cyber wars and India needs proper protocols and systems to guard against hacking, particularly of banking and financial data