Cyber security risks in financial sector shifting to trust-based attacks: Digital Threat Report
New Delhi, July 13
The Government of India released the Digital Threat Report 2025-26 on Monday, which highlighted that cybersecurity risks in the financial services sector are increasingly shifting from traditional hacking to trust-based attacks.
Speaking with ANI, SISA Founder and CEO Darshan Shanthamurthy highlighted India accounts for nearly 49 per cent of the world's instant digital payments, making trust and cybersecurity critical to the country's digital ecosystem, stressing the Digital Threat Report is "very forward looking" that will also help global community improve the cyber security posture.
He, however, cautioned that cyber threats continue to evolve faster than organisations can respond. He added, "the threats are growing faster than we can keep a tab on it, because obviously the diffusion of technology is going to be very, very important."
He added, "Slowness of the diffusion is the problem which we need to get addressed."
Sanjay Bahl, Director General CERT-IN, said the previous edition of the report had accurately forecast six of its seven key cyber trends, with the remaining prediction on quantum computing expected to materialise over the next one to two years.
He further noted, "AI is going to play a very crucial role in various threats, and how you safeguard yourselves is what we have tried to give in the report, so that you can take some measures and ensure that the organisations are safeguarded."
Besides following these recommendations, organisations should also maintain basic cyber hygiene and understand the evolving tactics and techniques used by threat actors to better safeguard their digital infrastructure, he said. "You have to follow some basic hygiene that is the first step and secondly the way the threat actors are evolving," he said, stressing "if people understand that they will be able to safeguard themselves, put those necessary controls and take care."
— ANI
Reader Comments
"Basic cyber hygiene" is the key line here. My father still clicks on every link that says "Your bank account will be blocked." 😓 A good report, but implementation at the grassroots level is where we always fail. Hope the government goes beyond just releasing reports.
India is a global leader in digital payments, but that also makes us a prime target. The shift to "trust-based attacks" is worrying—social engineering is harder to defend against than a simple firewall. Kudos to CERT-IN for the AI focus, but we need faster response times.
I work in a fintech firm and can confirm—trust-based attacks are skyrocketing. Deepfakes, fake customer care calls, phishing via WhatsApp... it's never-ending. The "slowness of diffusion" mentioned is absolutely correct. Banks need to adopt these recommendations ASAP, not in board meetings.
Interesting report, but I wish they'd also focus on rural digital literacy. My grandmother uses UPI now, but she doesn't understand scam calls. 🙏 The AI angle is good, but without public awareness campaigns, this report is just paper. Let's hope for action.
49% of world's instant payments—that's massive! And honestly, our digital infra is world-class. But trust-based attacks are the new frontier. Companies should invest in employee training, not just fancy firewalls. Basic hygiene first, advanced tools next. 👌
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