Hacked IT superpower: how India secures its cyberspace as a rising digital democracy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Why has India developed into one of the world’s top targets and sources of cyber attacks despite possessing a strategic edge in information and communications technology (ICT)? India has one of the most competitive ICT industries and workforces, largest global sourcing and fastest growing e-commerce markets, and second largest and fastest growing internet user base, and is a leader in using ICT to provide governance services, yet its economic and political information infrastructures have been disproportionality affected by cyber attacks. This article traces the evolution of cyber threats to India’s national security and identifies drivers of the national and international policies the Indian state has adopted to address these threats in the past two decades. It finds evidence for a growing gap between the ideation and implementation of cyber security legislation and policy, which is rooted in the political constraints inherent in India’s state capacity-building efforts, reluctance to engage in multistakeholder coordination, and struggles to yield gains from its hedging diplomacy in global cyber security negotiations. For the Security Studies scholarship on the sources of cyber insecurity, these findings highlight the need to further study the links between different types of cyber capacity, state structure and political systems as well as the specific conditions under which quickly digitizing democracies can effectively translate their ICT capacities and regulations into greater cyber resilience.