The Silicon Review ^Asia

India has ranked sixth on the list of the most breached country

In a report conducted by Cybersecurity Company Surfshark, India has ranked sixth on the list of the most breached country since the first recorded digital attacks in 2004. To put this in perspective, around 18 out of every 100 Indians had their personal details breached. According to the report, over 14.9 billion accounts have been leaked since 2004, and 254.9 million are from India. The lack of privacy legislation puts Indian users’ data in danger of being sold, reused, or exploited. Though the tech industry is flourishing, protecting personal digital data falls short compared to international standards. The legislative acts are outdated and require revamping, and digital privacy continues to weaken with newly introduced bills.

CERT-In has directed many companies to collect and store users’ data — names, addresses, contact numbers, email, and IP addresses — for up to five years and hand over information, if required. This is in line with the new VPN directives. Gytis Malinauskas, Head of Legal at Surfshark, shares the concern collecting the information as per VPN directives is bound to highly impact the privacy of millions of Indians. The move is counterproductive and strongly affects the growth of the sector. Collecting excessive amounts of data without robust protection mechanisms could lead to even more breaches nationwide.