From 'CoCoN' to coordinated action: Strengthening the cybersecurity ecosystem

Bishop Geevarghese Mor Coorilos was an unlikely victim of what has come to be known as “digital arrest”. A highly respected voice in Kerala, with international exposure through doctoral studies for nearly four years at Canterbury, UK, he would hardly seem an easy target for cybercriminals. Yet, he too fell prey to an organised gang.

Convinced by fraudsters over a call that his identity had been used in an illegal transaction, the Bishop was told that he was under digital arrest. He then transferred ₹13.31 lakh from his Federal Bank account in Kerala to a Yes Bank account in Delhi. Another ₹1.70 lakh was transferred from a friend’s account to an Indian Overseas Bank account in Jaipur. The Bishop subsequently went public with his experience, hoping to alert others to the methods employed by cybercriminals. Many a prominent figure like him have been duped but rarely do they go public. The Bishop was transparent.

Cybercrime has become a major economic threat in India, with estimates suggesting that losses from such frauds have run into nearly ₹55,000 crore in recent years. As India’s digital economy has boomed, earning global recognition for its payment infrastructure, criminal networks have also kept pace. With a booming financial and banking sector, the lifeblood of the economy, there is great strategic importance to cyber security. Any attack on this cardio-vascular system of the economy can have implications much beyond even a border incursion or a skirmish.

How to combat cybercrime while harnessing advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies has been a recurring theme at CoCoN (not an acronym), arguably India’s longest running annual conference convened by the Kerala Police since 2008. The initiative,nurtured by Manoj Abraham, now an ADGP in Kerala, has grown into a platform attracting participation from across India and abroad.

The breakneck speed at which digital transactions are taking place was underscored at CoCoN’s 19th edition in Kochi last week by Sreenivasulu Setty, Chairman of the Indian Banks’ Association and head of the State Bank of India (SBI).

“In SBI, we process on average 18,000 transactions per second (sic) on behalf of our 55 crore customers,” he said. Those numbers are mind boggling and beyond what happen even in developed countries. The chance for cyber breaches and compromises are high.But the bank’s dedicated cybersecurity protocols have helped prevent potential fraud losses estimated at ₹28,000 crore, Setty said, also highlighting the establishment of the Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation, a not-for-profit institution intended to strengthen fraud intelligence across the digital payments ecosystem set up by SBI, BOB and RBI..

SBI alone operates around 22,500 branches, 60,000 ATMs and 55,000 banking correspondents, besides supporting transactions through countless point-of-sale terminals. Such an extensive network poses vulnerabilities even as the bank has demonstrated resilience. A breach at any of these points can affect the entire edifice.No chain can be stronger than its weakest link.

Cybersecurity demands continuous investment and upgrades. Gartner, the leading American research firm,estimates that India’s spending on information and cybersecurity will reach around ₹35,000 crore in 2026.

Globally, even the biggest banks have remained exposed to attacks. JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon identifies cyber threats as a leading operational risk, with AI adding new dimensions to the challenge.

In cyber policing, Kerala has come up with models of institutional innovation. Cyberdome, established in 2015 by the Kerala Police, brings together technical experts, ethical hackers and cybersecurity professionals to support policing, investigations and knowledge-sharing. It emerged from ideas in such conferences, evidencing how discussion can translate into practical institutional capacity.

Yet, cybercrime and the dark web tries to be one step ahead always.The key question, therefore, is whether CoCoN can move to the next level. Conferences are necessary, but are they sufficient? Cybersecurity cannot remain the responsibility of the police alone. It requires closer coordination among the police, the State IT Department, financial institutions, technology companies, research organisations and other arms of government. The apparent lack of adequate engagement by the Kerala Government’s own IT establishment with CoCoN’s deliberations points to a familiar administrative weakness: government departments work in silos.

Research and development must also become a more integral part of the effort. Bringing the national capacity in cyber R&D into closer partnership with law enforcement and government agencies could strengthen both prevention and response.

Kerala’s exploration of robotics for policing, including work involving Kochi-based I-Hub Robotics, offers one example of the potential for such collaboration. But these kind of partners at present are medium to small scale. Is there a way of enhancing the scale with larger working models for national institutions involving software giants like the TCS and Infosys ? And follow up on conference outcomes regularly with something like a mechanism for Action Taken Reports (ATR) and Continuous Improvement Framework (CIF) so that the effort is institutionalised?

As India seeks to attain middle-income developed-country aspirations by 2047, it cannot afford complacency in a domain that underpins its unprecedented digital journey. Even payment for a cup of tea in a general compartment of an Indian train is now digital — no cash. The need of the hour therefore is to break silos and for greater synergy across government and beyond. As they say “fraud does not operate in silos. Cyber defence cannot either”.