Every Indian Should Learn Basic Cybersecurity Precautions: Ashish Kumar Saini

The rapid transition of India towards adoption of digital payments, online services, and social media has also seen a parallel rise in cybercrimes, including phishing, UPI frauds, identity theft, and ransomware. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reports that India experienced over 1.3 million incidents of cybersecurity across the country in 2024 alone. Indispensable certified ethical hacker Ashish Kumar Saini told reporters, who has more than 11 years of experience, that these incidents mostly succeed because people have no basic understanding of using cybersecurity. "Precaution is not a choice, it is an obligation for every Indian," he added.

Saini argues that cybersecurity has grown into a life skill and not just an IT issue. He outlines some easy actions that citizens should take, including using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, preventing clicking on unknown links, as well abstaining from public Wi-Fi for online banking or online trading. He also stressed that citizens must regularly update their devices and double-check payment requests instead of automatically transferring money. "Just like every citizen learns traffic rules in order to drive, we learn online safety rules to navigate the internet," he said, in conclusion.

As the problems and risks to security continue to rise, the need for cybersecurity literacy has never been more important and a shared responsibility amongst all citizens, especially in a nation like India with high levels of internet adoption and low levels of cybersecurity literacy. We now have a population that is not only naive to the pitfalls of the internet but is a lucrative target for hackers and scammers to leverage. Local and national agencies have ramped up awareness campaigns, but their efforts will be fruitless without the responsibility of individual users as the first line of defense.

User awareness is most effective when assisted by modalities for users to report an online crime to the authorities, like the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. And police departments have rapidly adopted technology for reporting online crime to limit their reliance on more traditional investigative practices.

In Mumbai, Connecting Cyber Networks is providing the support with their commitment to ignite a new generation of ethical hackers and cybersecurity leaders. Founded in 2019 on principles of truth, honesty, and commitment, Connecting Cyber Networks is introducing more than just technical skills to students; they are incorporating ethical and practical understanding by using hands-on simulations and real-time defense exercises. According to connections in the community to the founder, Ashish Kumar Saini, he began his journey more than 11 years ago with a passion for protecting digital infrastructure and has since dedicated his entire career to contributing to a digitally resilient society. Ashish has the belief that if the proper education and awareness can be provided to the people of India, we can build an effective defence to the evolving nature of cyber threats that Indians face.