Cybersecurity analyst Jiten Jain, Director of Voyager Infosec, in conversation with Ketki Angre, discusses the looming cyber attack on governments and nations. Jiten Jain puts it bluntly: “To keep a government stable, you need military strength, economic might, and critical infrastructure. Today, all three run on digital systems. If the power grid, telecom or GPS collapses, even for a few minutes, the nation collapses with it.”
Jain explained how the last decade has transformed India’s vulnerabilities. Power grids once controlled manually are now smart grids, built on SCADA systems and thousands of sensors. This digital shift has made them efficient but exposed. “Look at North Korea,” he notes. “They’ve brought down power grids abroad. China’s name has surfaced in multiple incidents here, especially around the Galwan clash (Ladakh). If a city’s grid collapses, everything from hospitals, metros, banking freezes instantly.”
Telecom is the next domino. Jain calls it the nervous system of modern India. “If the power sector collapses, telecom collapses. And when telecom collapses, your entire UPI ecosystem disappears. Medical response, emergency services, even ATMs go dead. This is a grey-zone weapon – it doesn’t look like a missile, but its impact is bigger than a bomb.”
GPS, often dismissed as a navigation tool, is actually the clock that keeps the nation running. Power grids use GPS timing to stay synchronised, telecom towers use it to align networks, and aviation relies on it for flight paths. But consider GPS spoofing is a form of cyberattack that manipulates location signals to mislead GPS-based systems. It happens when someone tricks your GPS device into thinking it’s somewhere else. As real GPS signals from satellites are very weak, an attacker can overpower them with stronger fake signals. Your phone or vehicle then “believes” the fake signals and shows the wrong location. In simple terms, it’s like someone loudly giving you wrong directions so you can’t hear the real ones. “You saw what happened in Delhi,” Jain says. “GPS spoofing diverted flights and confused cockpit instruments. Imagine driverless cars tomorrow. If GPS says you’re in Noida while you’re still in Delhi, the consequences are disastrous.”
Jain warns that cyber attacks will be the first strike in future conflicts. “Cyber is the new pre-conflict weapon. One skilled individual, or a rogue state, can disrupt an entire financial ecosystem or shut down a city. If these three lifelines fall, the nation falls.”
His message is clear: India’s power grids, telecom networks and GPS systems must be protected like national borders. In a digital war, these are the frontlines.
(This is the first in a series of articles related to cyber security, digital frauds, digital scams – where evolving technology keeps everyone on their toes)