Russia’s war against Ukraine may put India at a risk spot in attracting cyber attacks and thus, cybersecurity experts are warning that telecom, infrastructure and banking sectors may be vulnerable for potential attacks.

As the war is attracting a lot of cyber attacks as well as malwares that pose the threat of eventually scurrying their way into India’s servers and could also be sold in the dark web, possibly may be used against the nation

Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court advocate and cyber law expert revealed that the war drew immense cyber warfare particularly targeting digital banking services and with that he says, “India has to be prepared for a vicious cyberattack”.

“I expect India’s critical infrastructure, banks, telecom network to up their securities in the coming days”, expects Duggal.

Security experts say that the nation may not be a direct target, however, could possibly face the consequences of collateral damage.

Experts also stressed about a spillover impact, implying other nations using the distraction to their advantage to test their latest malwares into the vulnerabilities of Indian servers.

“The threat of nation-state intrusions increases even for countries not engulfed in the conflict. The spillover of malware attacks from Russia or Ukraine may not be high but smaller groups or individuals may carry out low intensity attacks”, warns Suman Kar, chief executive officer of Banbreach, a cybersecurity company specializing in network security, data breach management, and forensics.

First, disasters such as COVID-19 resulted in a cyberattack spike, and Russia’s war against Ukraine also poses the same threat with individual accounts often being targeted.

“Given the current scenario, some hackers will work in the shadows attacking those who have a big Internet market base like India. There may be a rise in WiFi hacking and individual accounts will be targeted”, says Liad Herman, co-founder and chief executive officer of SafeHouse Tech, an Indo-Israeli cybersecurity enterprise.

Worst, Supreme Court’s advocate, Duggal, says that India is highly likely to become a specific target soon. “A lot of the hacking community in Ukraine is also not happy with India’s stance. This trend is likely to be replicated in cyber space. Since India has chosen to abstain from voting at the UN, this approach could lead to the hacking community being antagonized”.

“During the state sponsored attacks, it’s likely that new custom based malware/exploits come into play. It’s possible that these thereafter get exploited commercially, hence there is a possibility of cyber collateral impact even if one is not a target of cyber warfare”, cautions Siddharth Vishwanath, cyber leader at PwC.