Half of India's Critical Infra Providers are victims of cyber attacks

New Delhi : Cyber attacks against critical infrastructure providers in India have become more frequent and increasingly effective, said a survey released by Symantec. According to its India findings of its 2010 Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Survey, successful attacks on cyber networks of critical infrastructure providers could have a significant societal impact and potentially even threat national security. 


"Critical Infrastructure Protection is not limited to protecting government and defense infrastructure, but extends to both publicly and privately run infrastructure such as telephone networks, power generation and distribution, oil refineries and gas pipelines," said Shantanu Ghosh, Vice President, India Product Operations, Symantec. 


According to Ghosh, today security threats have become so advanced that they require a comprehensive and risk-based approach that encompasses security, disaster recovery and information management technology to maintain true network resiliency.


The survey has found that 43 percent of Indian companies said that attempts to shutdown or degrade their computer network were effective. On the other hand, 37 percent said attempts to manipulate physical equipment through network were somewhat effective. Adding to it, more than two-thirds of critical infrastructure providers said that these attacks are increasing.


About 80 percent of Indian providers are positive towards government initiatives to protect critical infrastructure. Moreover, one in five respondents is also engaged with the government on these plans.
Respondents cited security training, response, audits and disaster recovery planning as safeguards that needed the most improvement. In fact, 42 percent said that lack of trained resources within industry sectors is a challenge.


In a global basis, 53 percent of companies suspected they had experienced an attack waged with a specific political goal in mind. While 48 percent expect attacks in the next year, 80 percent believe that the frequency of such attacks is increasing. Two-thirds have positive attitudes about programs and are willing to cooperate with their government on CIP. On the other hand, only one-third of critical infrastructure providers feel extremely prepared against all types of attacks. 


Resource Silicon India

Salaries of niche tech skills revive

Bangalore: IT enterprise comprises of a big hierarchy and grows at a brisk pace which makes it difficult to determine a well defined ladder of roles played in the same. Work decentralization makes the process a bit more complex with the huge task broken into jobs assigned to various areas of expertise. Thus determining the hot IT skills on demand is just another gullible exercise.

Salary schemes and incentive break ups vary from firm to firm and professionals find it odd to compare various salary packages according to industry norms. However, as a sequel tothe recent article in Silicon India on pay packages, we make an attempt to study the various pay packages across IT streams and sketch an outline of the average salary provided in the industry. Since more and more freshers join the industry every now and then, remuneration becomes a key area to be highlighted.

Functional consultants have to take up various roles and responsibilities during his assignment to different types of SAP Projects. He/she has to understand the modules they are implementing and the set up and configuration options available, the key skill is being able to map the requirements of the customer to the capabilities of the ERP system. As per latest info, average salary of SAP consultants vary between 3,92,000-8,31,000 per annum which includes a basic pay which ranges between  3,68,000-7,83,000 per annum and bonuses ranging from 20,000-89,000, according to payscale.com. While entry level SAP consultants mange somewhere between 2,40,000-4,83,000 per annum on an average, higher level personnel with 5-9 years experience get paid to a maximum of 9,10,000 on an average yearly basis.

Quality assurance engineers have been instrumental in verifying the accuracy or performance of the product as well as troubleshooting the correction of any problems or issues. Depending on the type of product the quality assurance engineer may be responsible for testing the item under various working conditions. The national salary data for QA has been good this year unlike the years of financial recession, they manage an average of 2,28,000-4,52,000 per annum. Entry level QA engineers seem to get paid around 2,70,000 on an average while personnel with experience over 10 years manage anywhere around 4,34,000-10 lakhs per annum.

Technical support is gaining huge importance in IT infrastructure. Server support and remote support are areas much looked forward to these days. Average technical support engineer salaries can vary greatly due to company, location, industry, experience and benefits. However, an average standard pay ranges between 1,63,000 - 3,81,000 per annum. Years of experience really matter in this nuance and employees under 1 year experience get an average of 1 lakh-2 lakh a year while people with experience between 5-9 years can manage somewhere around 6 lakh per annum to the maximum. Higher level employees are offered up to an average of 7,93,000 per annum and 36,000 on bonuses per year.

And as mentioned at the outset, trends in IT skills can never be limited to particular skills. So keep tracking for more info in our upcoming articles. 

Resource From Silicon India