PUNE: “It’s now time to become cyber resilient,” said  Krishna Sastry Pendyala, Executive Director, Cyber Security at PWC. 

Krishna  was speaking at an event on Data Breach and Forensics at Hotel Grand Sheraton near Pune station on Sunday. He has over three decades of experience in cyber forensics and cyber security.

The event was part of a two-day conclave held by ISACA, an independent, nonprofit, global association that engages in development, adoption and use of globally accepted, industry-leading knowledge and practices for information systems. 

ISACA Global is celebrating its 50th anniversary, while its Pune chapter is celebrating its 20th anniversary. ISACA had invited leaders from industry to share their views on data privacy, breaches and protection.

Speaking at the event, Krishna shared several incidents when data was compromised which led to loss of several crores for companies. 

He shared about the importance of data in healthcare industry where patients are paying through debit and credit cards, in banking and e-commerce industries where people are tampering with data for profits. 

“There is need to encrypt data when two online applications are sharing information. Hackers are bound to exploit the system if data is not encrypted. Similarly companies need to have crisis management plan in case they are targeted by hackers,” added Krishna.

He highlighted that how metadata captured through electronic devices can be used to track people. 

Speaking on cyber forensics he said, “These days IP addresses can be hidden and so one needs to cross-check whether the inbound IP address is similar to the outbound IP address and if there is a difference then it can be presence of malware in the system. It is time we become cyber resilient and undergo Cyber Maturity Assessment.”

He said tools like Mozilla InvestiGator and Google Rapid Response can help in live forensics and incident response.