COUNTRY FOCUS : INDIA
Mahesh Shanmugasundaram , Regional Director of South Asia at HelpSystems , tells Intelligent
CIO about the importance of data protection for Indian businesses , the consequences of not having security systems in place and India ’ s much anticipated Personal Data Protection Bill .
Why India ’ s Personal Data P can ’ t come soon enough
Captial city of Mumbai , India
Recently India ’ s national airline , Air India , announced a cyberattack on its data processor ’ s servers that has affected about 4.5 million customers around the world .
The breach involved personal data registered between August 2011 and February 2021 . Details including name , date of birth , contact information , passport and ticket information as well as credit card data were all compromised . In a statement Air India said : “ The protection of our customers ’ personal data is of highest importance to us and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate the continued support and trust of our passengers .”
Home working , Digital Transformation and a lack of action create the perfect storm
Unfortunately , India is no different from other countries when it comes to cyberbreaches and cybercriminals are carefully discovering new ways to obtain sensitive personal and business data . This , coupled with the fact that the pandemic has accelerated Digital Transformation initiatives and catapulted the ecosystem forward five years in a few months , has compounded the issue .
In recent years , India has experienced its fair share of incidents , from the well-publicised international
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