Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has gone ahead and established a cybersecurity hub, which will bring together research, funding and industry to build the next wave of cybersecurity startups in India. Dr Krishnashree Achuthan,CEO of  Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks, a cybersecurity expert says,"We often depend on solutions from other countries. Our aim is to train talents here who will create solutions for preventing and protecting cyber attacks," she says. Elaborating further, she says, "There are more than 4,000 startups in India but only less than 100 operate in the field of cybersecurity and related products. With wars being fought every minute across the world, it has become a strategic national priority. India needs to tackle this challenge from both an economic and military perspective."

Even through india’s digital infrastructure is vulnerable to catastrophic attacks, it has enough know how and capacity to protect itself, according to Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan, Director, Amrita Center for Cyber Security Systems and Networks. 

Nevertheless, she said a multi-level approach is required for cybersecurity, one that could protect systems at the technical and physical levels. Sound digital security protocols and early warnings are important, said Ms. Achuthan. Awareness about potential cyber-attacks should increase among the users to reduce vulnerabilities.

"It’s not just about updating software, the attacks also stress on the growing need of ethical hackers. “Unfortunately, we don’t have many ethical hackers. Even if we teach theory, they (ethical hackers) need hands-on-training, and it’s very minimal. We are quite worried about the recent attacks. With digitisation, there are several vulnerabilities,” said Krishnashree Achuthan, CEO of  Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks.

"India needs an in-depth, defensive approach to tackle threats of cyberattack threats such as ransomware. What this implies is a multi-level approach to cybersecurity that can protect systems at different layers – both at technical and physical levels," said Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan, Director, Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks at Amrita University.

Following the outbreak of WannaCry ransomware on Friday, various reports said that India was one of the worst-hit nations targeted by the malware. With cyber-security experts saying that the malware infected at least 45,000 computer systems belonging to Indian organisations ranging from banking to IT services to small retail shops, there's enough ground to speculate on a possible under-reporting of related incidents.