Historical Consciousness of Cyber Security in India

Cyber security has become crucial to any nation’s security, economy, and overall well-being. While much has been written about India’s rise as a global computing power, not much is known about its cyber security history. I seek to fill this gap through a comprehensive analysis of India’s cyber security history and cyber security consciousness. To do this, I take a very wide view of cyber security––as the totality of security infrastructure that includes all technologies used for information collection, storage, and dissemination. My study also covers a very long period, starting from India’s colonial times to the present. The long period of examination helps gain perspective on how India’s security stances and security consciousness have evolved with time. Earlier colonial policies kept information and communications technologies (ICTs) strictly under government authority, to be wielded as tools of project power and control. These policies continued even after independence, with successive Indian governments retaining absolute monopoly over ICTs. I divide cyber security into internally-focused (i.e. censorship, surveillance, control of citizens) and externally- focused (i.e. defensive and offensive actions directed at malicious external and internal entities perceived as threats to the nation, its enterprises, and citizens) cyber security. My analysis shows that postindependent India granted its citizens freedom of expression and the freedom to elect and govern, but did not do away with the colonial vestiges of internally- focused control policies using ICTs. Nor has it been entirely successful in stitching together a comprehensive externally-focused cyber security policy, despite increasing threats from the outside. These are increasingly at odds with Indian citizens whose cyber security consciousness has grown and evolved over time. It is clear that the state and the citizens need to continuously and democratically negotiate cyber security, to balancing national security with the citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.