The number of reported cyber attacks has gone over 24,000 in 2012, as against 13,000 in 2011, according to a report yet to be released by the government. Additionally, close to 20,000 websites were defaced last year. 

The cyber incident numbers stood at 8,266 and 10,315 in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Interestingly, just 450 cases were reported in 2005.

The unprecedented increase in cyber incidents clearly shows the vulnerability of people and organisations in cyber space. Moreover, many incidents are not reported as organisations fear such information might adversely impact its reputation. 

The cyber security breaches, in non-critical information infrastructure category, are handled by Indian computer emergency response team (CERT-In), which is a body under department of electronics and IT. While CERT-In has the technical expertise in the domain, it doesn’t have adequate human resource. Currently, the agency has a team of 90 professionals. According to senior officials with CERT-In, the organisation is planning to recruit another 150 to 200 people in next 12 months to tackle with the steep rise in incidents. 

Recently, the national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon has announced that the government will soon come up with cyber security architecture to protect critical information infrastructure. "The goal is to prevent sabotage, espionage and other forms of cyber-attacks," said Menon, while delivering the eighth Raja Ramanna Memorial Lecture at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore.