Global cybersecurity companies pitch camp in India

By Nivedita Bhattacharjee

MUMBAI: Global cybersecurity company TaaSera launched its India business on Thursday, joining a growing number of cybersecurity firms eyeing India as a growth frontier amid an expected doubling of online crime in the country.

Silicon Valley-based TaaSera said India, host to some of the world's biggest IT service companies, was vulnerable to cybercrimes on account of its growing economic progress.

Increasing smartphone use, online transactions and the government's “Digital India“ initiative are opening up opportunities in an industry that is worth $77 billion globally. The number of cyber crimes in India may reach 300,000 in 2015, almost double the level of last year, according to an Assocham-Mahindra SSG study conducted this year.

That compares better than the number of reported instances in developed nations. A PWC study of 2014 said the average number of security incidents detected in each of the 500 organisations they surveyed in 2013 was about 135 per organization.

However, industry experts say the number of crimes reported in India is not a good measure for comparison, given the absence of disclosure laws.