"AI-Enabled Cyber Threats Deepen India's Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability"
Zero-day vulnerability
a software flaw unknown to the developer, leaving no patch available at the time of discovery.
Polymorphic malware
malicious code that autonomously rewrites its own structure to evade signature-based detection tools.
India's cybersecurity framework rests on the Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended in 2008), which provides the legal basis for recognising electronic records, penalising cyber offences, and protecting sensitive personal data. The Act established CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) as the nodal agency for cyber incident response. However, the Act was designed for a civilian internet governance context, not for the sophisticated, state-sponsored offensive operations that now define the threat landscape.
Cybersecurity has historically been an asymmetric domain. A small number of technologically advanced states, primarily the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, hold disproportionate offensive and defensive capabilities. India sits in a middle tier: a large digital economy with rapidly expanding internet penetration, but without an indigenous frontier AI ecosystem comparable to the leading powers. This gap has widened as artificial intelligence has become the decisive variable in offensive cyber operations.
AI is transforming every stage of what security professionals call the cyber kill chain, the sequence of steps an attacker takes from initial reconnaissance to final exploitation. At the reconnaissance stage, AI models can mine social media at scale to craft highly personalised spear-phishing emails, replacing the slow, manual work of human intelligence gathering. At the weaponisation stage, large language models (LLMs) can generate polymorphic malware, code that autonomously rewrites and restructures itself to evade detection. Traditional antivirus software works by matching known malware signatures; polymorphic malware defeats this by constantly changing its own structure.
The most consequential development is the autonomous identification of zero-day vulnerabilities, software flaws unknown to the developer and therefore unpatched. Frontier AI models have demonstrated the ability to discover thousands of such vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers, and to develop working exploits, largely without human intervention. …
Keeping in view India's internal security, analyse the impact of cross-border cyber attacks. Also discuss defensive measures against these sophisticated attacks.
Discuss the potential threats of cyber attack and the security framework to prevent it.
Analyse the multidimensional challenges posed by external state and non-state actors to the internal security of India. Also discuss measures required to be taken to combat these threats.
The terms 'WannaCry, Petya and EternalBlue' sometimes mentioned in the news recently are related to
Consider the following statements regarding AI-enabled cyber threats:
1.Polymorphic malware generated by large language models can autonomously rewrite its own code structure to evade signature-based antivirus detection.
2.Zero-day vulnerabilities are software flaws that have already been patched by the developer but remain uninstalled on target systems.
3.Operational Technology (OT) systems governing critical infrastructure face heightened AI-era risk because they were not originally designed with internet-era security in mind.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which of the following correctly describes the term 'spear-phishing' in the context of AI-enabled cyber threats?
With reference to India's cybersecurity institutional framework, consider the following pairs:
1.CERT-In — Nodal agency for cyber incident response under MeitY
2.NCIIPC — Protects critical information infrastructure across sectors including energy, finance and defence
3.BOSS Linux — India's indigenous operating system developed by MeitY for civilian use only
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
Assertion (A): India's dependence on foreign AI systems for cybersecurity defence creates a strategic vulnerability even when those systems are used for protective purposes.
Reason (R): A foreign AI system used for threat detection could itself serve as a vector for espionage or sabotage if its supply chain is compromised.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above Assertion and Reason?
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