New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his desire on the importance of global collaboration to tackle the menace of cyber threats. “There may be many domains in which global cooperation is desirable. But in the domain of cyber security, global cooperation is not only desirable but is inevitable. Because the threat dynamics are distributed – handlers are somewhere, assets are somewhere else, they are speaking through servers hosted in a third place, and their funding could come from a completely different region. Unless all the nations in the chain cooperate, very little is possible,” said PM.
Reports suggest that global cybercrime damage costs $6 trillion annually, which is quite big if we consider the impact of the challenges.
Prime Minister Modi asserted that, “Cyber threats are to be taken very seriously. One angle of their adverse impact is the financial losses they cause. The World Bank estimates that cyber-attacks could have caused losses of around $5.2 trillion to the world during 2019-2023.” But he also emphasized on the other aspects of cyber threats which is social and geopolitical in nature. “Cyberspace has introduced an entirely new dimension to the battle against illicit financial activities and terrorism. Terrorist organizations are using technology for radicalization, moving money from money laundering and drugs into terror funding, and capitalizing on emerging digital avenues such as the dark net, metaverse, and cryptocurrency platforms to fulfil their nefarious aims,” he added.
Not only this, the PM also further opined that it can also have implications for the social fabric of nations.
“The spread of ‘deep fakes’ can cause chaos and loss of credibility of news sources. Fake news and deep fakes can be used to fuel social unrest. So, it is of concern to every group, every nation, and every family. That is why we have taken this up as a priority. We hosted a G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the age of NFTs, Artificial Intelligence and Metaverse. During this conference, concern was expressed over malicious cyber activities contrary to established norms, principles and rules of cyberspace and international law. It was stressed that coordination on prevention and mitigation strategies is needed. Emphasis was placed on the need to achieve a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes,” said Prime Minister Modi in an interview with news agency PTI before the G20 Finale taking place in New Delhi on 8-10 September 2023.
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