'Cyber security is a diplomatic issue today'

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cybercrime is a major concern for enterprises worldwide. Literally, there will not be even a single company that has not fallen victim to cybercrime of one kind or the other.

“Cybercrime has today grown to a level of diplomatic concern, similar to cyber war or terrorism,” says Pamela Warren, CISSP, CIPP, Cybercrime Strategist, Director, Public Sector & CIP Initiatives, McAfee Inc.

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“We wanted to do something beyond selling products, in order to help companies counter cybercrime. That is when we launched a cybercrime initiative in 2008, in order to focus more on research and innovation, security best practices and work with governments, understand legislation and derive policies to fight cyber security,” says Pamela, who was recently in India to meet the Union Ministers in the capital with regard to McAfee's cyber security initiatives, in an interaction with Deepa Damodaran of CIOL. Excerpts:

CIOL: Can you tell us a few details regarding your meeting with the government?

Pamela Warren: With the new announcements from CBI and NASSCOM, it is a great time to explore what the government thinks is important. We had meeting with some of the ministries on cyber security and overall the discussion was positive.

Hopefully, this first step will in near future result in some opportunities for us to work together.

CIOL: Based on these talks, what will be your future steps with regard to cyber security?

Pamela: It is too early to talk on what the future steps will be. However, it is suffice to say that we are open to share our expertise on cyber security that we have garnered through our associations with governments of various countries across the globe.

Outsourcing and cloud make India an important destination today. We are very excited to help enterprises in every possible manner to make them secure.

CIOL: How do you look at the Indian cyber security market in terms of legislation, technology, law, challenges etc?

Pamela: Similar to other countries across the world, India is also concerned about critical infrastructure protection and cyber crime. It is also looking at what technical and administrative controls can be put in place to ensure utmost protection of the government and enterprises. 

It is exciting to see the new CBI/NASSCOM partnership focused on cyber crime, as well as the newer role of CERT-IN in assisting the government with important cyber security measures to protect the country and its critical infrastructure.

Indian companies are embracing today’s applications and at the same time ensuring protection of businesses. They are actively working with their counterparts and the security industry to protect their businesses and thus economy.

We look forward to continue to work with Indian businesses and the government to understand what we can do to ensure best security practices as threat and applications evolve. We will also work with partners and the government to help instill cyber security awareness in Indians through free content and tools.

We have developed a cybercrime scanner in Bangalore, which, among other tools, is available to today.

CIOL: What are the cyber concerns that you see predominantly in Indian market?

Pamela: Indian companies, like those of most other countries around the world, are interested in protecting critical infrastructure, implementing security best practices before considering cloud computing services and Web 2.0 applications on their network.

They also want to ensure the security of mobile devices and all data within enterprise network, especially today, when there is a dramatic growth in mobility and mobile devices that can carry sensitive information. 

We find that all of these topics are in the minds of executives across the world, and Indian businesses are just as concerned about these issues as their counterparts elsewhere — with the same necessary sense of urgency.