'India ahead of many in countering cyber threats'

Google Security's Heather Adkins highlights the dual role of generative AI in cybersecurity
NEW DELHI: Generative AI, while being used by cyber criminals to further their activities, will also help create stronger and swifter counter-measures, making the internet safer to use, according to Heather Adkins, global VP of engineering for Google Security.
Adkins, who spent over two decades at Google, also believes that rise in geopolitical tensions may fuel state-backed cyberattacks, making the world more vulnerable.
However, she added that Indian govt has been at forefront of taking measures to counter cyber threats effectively, ahead of many other countries. This will also see Google Security set up an engineering centre in India.
Talking to TOI on the sidelines of the 'Safer with Google India Summit', Adkins said while companies create tools to tackle cyber threats, it is equally important to sensitise users about measures to identify malicious and fraudulent content.
"Unlike the physical world where you have instincts and senses to identify something dangerous, the online world does not have a parallel. We have to build that."
Speaking about state-sponsored cyber threats, she said they can sometimes be more focused and successful with capabilities to deploy large teams towards such activities. "It's a question of who has more time. And, if you think about a well-funded nation state, may be they'll create a project, put 100 people on it, and they just work on that project throughout the day...
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So, they often know more because they have more time, not because they're smarter.
I would say they're more likely to be successful."
On Gen AI and whether it aids cyber criminals too, Adkins said, "There's no doubt that we're seeing an increase in tempo and sophistication of attacks... But I also feel that today, more than ever before, enterprises have better tools. If I think about starting a company 23 years ago, cybersecurity looked primitive then.
Today, most of the solutions you're going to buy have security built into them. So, you're in a much better place than you were, say, 20-30 years ago.
"
She said that Gen AI will give "defenders" a "leg up" over the threat actors. "We will be able to leverage Gen AI to protect infrastructure in new ways that we've never thought of before and also at a speed that we've never been able to achieve before."
On India, she said govt here is "very engaged" on cyber safety. "... it's a hot topic. They've done a very good job in getting involved quickly and partnering with companies. The workforce here and education levels in India are pretty high. There are parts of the world I go where they're just now starting to think about cyber security and they're much further behind India."
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