Cybersecurity Trends in India 2024: What Businesses can Expect

Kartik Shahani, the Country Manager of Tenable India shares key cybersecurity trends and challenges expected to impact organizations in India in 2024 with The Hans India. He says, looking ahead, the cloud and AI pose the greatest risks to organisations in India as their adoption of these technologies increases.

According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Tenable, Indian IT and cybersecurity leaders are concerned about their cloud infrastructure with 70% saying it is the greatest source of cyber risk in their organisation. While the cloud solves many process inefficiencies and helps businesses cut costs, adopting a preventive approach to secure it has become a challenge. In India, 64% of IT and cybersecurity leaders say their organisations struggle to integrate crucial user and identity data into preventive cybersecurity practices, revealing a gap between recognition and practical implementation.

Traditionally, security professionals have viewed cloud security in terms of networks, workloads and identities. In 2024, there will be an increased demand for solutions and practices that help organisations proactively evaluate their entire attack surface and prioritise weaknesses to effectively curb cyber risk.

Towards this end, we will see cloud architects being responsible for the security of their applications. Solutions that would have originally been designed for cybersecurity teams will now be adopted by developers, so they can continuously improve the security of their applications without slowing down software development.

Generative AI advancements are poised to remain a prominent force, with organizations increasingly integrating them to address diverse business requirements. However, the approaching year is anticipated to witness a surge in attacks targeting AI platforms, surpassing our current comprehension and defensive capabilities. This escalation raises concerns about heightened data breaches, potentially leading to cyber-physical repercussions. For instance, a self-driving car relying on AI could face risks to passenger safety if subjected to a cybersecurity breach.

The evolving landscape also introduces the risk of data poisoning, especially as numerous enterprises are actively pursuing the development of their generative AI solutions. In a malicious scenario, an attacker might manipulate a training dataset with harmful data, fundamentally altering the model's outcomes. Such attacks can further instigate bias injection, with profound implications for industries like healthcare, automotive, and transportation.

As the new year unfolds, it becomes imperative for Indian organizations to pivot towards exposure management, adopting a proactive security strategy. This approach provides a comprehensive overview of the attack surface, encompassing vulnerabilities and misconfigurations both on-premises and in the cloud. It takes into account users, identities, and assets, including those exposed to the internet and operational technology. By adopting a preventive stance, organizations can stay one step ahead of adversaries, fortifying their defenses against potential threats.