The MSME ministry on Monday informed Parliament that it has no information or data on cyberattacks against MSMEs and the number of MSMEs that went out of business due to cyberattacks in the last five years. Minister of State in the MSME Ministry Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha that the ministry may issue directives requesting MSMEs to follow the instructions/ guidelines on cyber security issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to safeguard against cyberattacks.
The minister was responding to a question about whether the government is aware of the 2023 India Threat Landscape Report by Cyfirma and whether it is a fact that cyberattacks against small and medium enterprises saw an increase between 2021 to 2023.
Moreover, the number of cyberattacks on government agencies has increased significantly year-on-year. In the second half of 2022, there were 95 per cent more cyberattacks on government agencies than in the same period in 2021. Further, the number of state-sponsored cyberattacks in India increased by more than 100 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.
India was the most targeted country in 2022 as attacks on government agencies more than doubled, the report said.
With respect to small businesses, the report noted that SMEs are not spared by cyberwar as businesses of all sizes are targeted.
According to another report by cybersecurity company NordLocker in September last year, India was among the top countries hit by ransomware attacks with more than half targeted at the country’s small businesses. Small businesses with an employee base of 500 were at the highest risk of ransomware attacks, accounting for around 54 per cent of total attacks from January 2020 to July 2022.
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