Reported cybersecurity incidents in banking sector fell by 81% between 2021 and 2023: MoS

Incidents of cybersecurity in the Indian banking sector reported to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) fell by 81% between 2021 and 2023, minister of state for electronics and information technology Jitin Prasada said in a written response to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Such incidents fell by 15.7% between 2022 and 2023.

As per the data presented in the Parliament, 122,764 cybersecurity incidents, including phishing, network scanning and probing, website hacking, and virus and malware, were reported from the banking sector in 2021. This number fell to 27,482 in 2022 and 23,158 in 2023.

Prasada presented the data while responding to a question by BJP MP Delkar Kalaben Mohanbhai.

Phishing incidents jumped from 215 in 2021 to 1,145 in 2022, but fell to 401 in 2023. Incidents of website hacking increased from 18 in 2021 to 57 in 2022, but fell to 39 in 2023. Incidents of network scanning and probing fell from 86,585 in 2021 to 10,220 in 2022 and increased to 12,330 in 2023. Reported incidents of virus and malware continued to fall from 2021 to 2023 from 9,203 to 2,559 to 1,185.

MeitY used 79% of its cybersecurity budget in FY24

In another response to Congress MP Vamsi Krishna Gaddam, Prasada said that MeitY had used up ₹316.51 crore of the ₹400 crore allocated for cybersecurity in FY24. In FY23, the ministry used ₹30.11 crore of the revised budget of ₹100 crore for cybersecurity, and in FY22, it used ₹310.51 crore of the revised budget of ₹339 crore.

In July, while announcing the Union budget, the government increased the allocation for cybersecurity by 89.75% from ₹400 crore (RE-2023-24) to ₹759 crore (2024-25), the same as the interim Budget.

Cert-In’s budget was reduced by ₹2 crore to ₹240 crore compared to the interim Budget. It still marked a 14.42% increase from ₹208 crore (RE FY24) allocated for Cert-In.