Cyber security threats rise in wake of note ban-forced cashless payments

Cyber security in India may face increased threats as digital connectivity enhances following demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, said BVR Mohan Reddy, former Nasscom chairman.

"With the increase in digital connectivity and with demonetisation, cyber security becomes a crucial element for India," a statement quoting Reddy, also the Founder and Executive Chairman, Cyient Limited said on Wednesday.

"There is an existing requirement of 5 lakh cyber security professionals in India, which will grow in the coming years," Reddy said.

On the IT and ITeS industry trends and prospects in 2017, he said, skilling will play a role in transforming the organisation into digital enterprise and the digital technology which is grouped as SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud), contributes to 5-10 per cent of the industry revenue. However, it is anticipated that the digital solutions will touch 60 per cent in 5-10 years.

"The incoming new projects will need combination of multiple technologies, and has to be build by smaller teams in shorter cycles. The need will be for multi-skill high performance organisations. To address the changing needs, workforce has to be reskilled more often and needs different approach," he said.

Developing the local markets into a technology consuming market will be a key challenge and the country is yet to be known as technology consuming country.

According to him, the IT industry went through peaks and lows during 2016 on account of volatile political, economic and technological environment globally.

In spite of all the uncertainties, India s market share continues to be at 7 per cent of the global software and IT services spend, and 57 per cent of global IT services is outsourced to India.

The IT BPM industry is poised to grow at 8-10 per cent for the FY 2017, demonstrating sustained growth, 

he said. 

Nasscom, telecom operators, and NITI Aayog have come together in creating a dedicated helpline –14444 –for addressing all queries on digitial payments, as government takes strides to push for more digital transactions post demonetisation.