<\/p>\n
The governments of India and Australia are in preliminary talks to explore sharing real-time information to tackle cybercrimes, fuelled by growing cyberattacks from nations such as North Korea on critical infrastructure such as power grids and medical facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The two countries are increasingly interested in a bilateral treaty that specifically addresses data-sharing to tackle cybercrime, Brendan Dowling, ambassador for cyber affairs and critical technologies in Australia\u2019s department of foreign affairs and trade, told Mint<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe current MLAT process is not smooth and impedes our ability to cooperate. Bilaterally, there\u2019s room to improve. There have been conversations between India and Australia to set up a bilateral cyber security-driven data sharing agreement,\u201d Dowling said. \u201cConceptually, both countries agree upon the need for it\u2014what hasn\u2019t happened is a framework to make this happen, though the intent is there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n MLAT, or mutual legal assistance treaty, is the cornerstone of cross-border information sharing between nations\u2014where either party may have intent to pursue legal resolutions based on a crime. However, the process associated with sharing information through such treaties is prolonged, taking up to multiple years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere is a time lag in the process of MLATs being executed. When bilaterals are discussed for data sharing to particularly combat cybercrimes, the procedure being adopted is going to be the most critical for India to put it into effective use,\u201d said NS Nappinai, senior counsel at the Supreme Court of India and founder of cybersecurity advocacy platform Cyber Saathi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As a result, various countries are working on ways to expedite information-sharing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere is interest on both sides to find ways for it. The Quad (comprising India, Australia, Japan and the US) has been a useful grouping, under which a cybersecurity working group actively speaks about cross-country data sharing arrangements,\u201d Dowling said. \u201cBetween India and Australia, both governments are interested in sharing more information in real time, collaborating closely with specifically assigned points of contact, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ambassador was in India last week to attend the ministry of foreign affairs-backed Global Technology Summit 2025. On the sidelines, Dowling met with \u201cvarious government departments, as well as private industry stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Speaking about how the potential bilateral treaty could work, Dowling said it will be hinged upon \u201cthe regularity of connecting on both ends\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLegal frameworks are important, but institutional linkages are important as well. Going forward, we will work on understanding the right mechanisms. There is a Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert) for Asia Pacific (APAC), through which some information sharing does happen. But, that is very broad-ranged\u2014bilaterally, India and Australia will be speaking with each other to improve this aspect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Such a move is crucial in the current geopolitical climate associated with cybercrime. Homegrown cybersecurity firm Indusface\u2019s \u2018State of Application Security in India, 2025\u2019 report, published earlier this month, said that over 7.15 billion cyberattacks on enterprises were detected by cybersecurity tools through 2024\u201420% jump over the previous year. Over 1.2 billion attacks were tracked in the banking and financial services sector alone, with attacks on the sector increasing 74% through the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nappinai said despite data-sharing strictures laid down under India\u2019s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, cross-border data sharing is a crucial aspect of tracking cybercrimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cData protection laws have built-in exemptions, particularly for data sharing inter alia for criminal investigations. All countries that are signatories of the Budapest Convention have to do data-sharing as per the agreement. This includes European Union countries, which follow the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the gold standard of privacy laws. Data protection laws, therefore, do not prevent countries from data sharing when it comes to combating crimes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nappinai added that an ad-hoc UN committee under the aegis of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Cyber Crime (UNODC) is close to finalizing a draft cybercrime convention in 2024, that is likely to come into effect soon. \u201cThis draft provides for data sharing and cooperation between countries for fighting cybercrime, and becomes part of initiatives that signatory countries are undertaking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cA bilateral agreement between two countries is a good move, because ultimately, whatever the treaties and conventions may be, countries will eventually need to capture the same within municipal laws and methodologies for implementing them. Bilaterals are one way of doing that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The catalyst for such information-sharing agreements is rising cyberattacks on public infrastructure such as healthcare, power distribution and water networks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere is scope for more collaborations here, because nation-backed cyberattacks are today interfering with democratic processes, stealing sensitive commercial data, and disrupting civilian services,\u201d Dowling said. \u201cIf a district\u2019s power or water supply is being disrupted by another nation, this is a problem\u2014we\u2019ve publicly called out Russia, Iran, North Korea and China for such activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n India, too, has been subjected to this. A report by cybersecurity tracker Recorded Future alleged in 2021 that widespread cyberattacks on Mumbai\u2019s power distribution network were orchestrated by state-backed cyberattackers from China\u2014causing a widespread power blackout in the nation\u2019s financial capital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The governments of India and Australia are in preliminary talks to explore sharing real-time information to tackle cybercrimes, fuelled by growing cyberattacks from nations such as North Korea on critical infrastructure such as power grids and medical facilities. The two countries are increasingly interested in a bilateral treaty that specifically addresses data-sharing to tackle cybercrime, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34673,691,34666,188,183,34676,1271,34670,185,186,1372,5402,501,34667,34675,34672,289,34674,34665,187,34668,34669,184,6843,34664,34671,34662,189,34663,150,182,190,34677],"class_list":["post-389498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-apac","tag-australia","tag-bilateral-treaty","tag-blockchain-tech","tag-blockchain-technology","tag-budapest-convention","tag-cert","tag-cross-border-information-sharing","tag-crypto-technology","tag-cryptocurrency-technology","tag-cyber-attacks","tag-cyber-crimes","tag-cyber-saathi","tag-data-sharing","tag-dpdp-act-2023","tag-global-technology-summit-2025","tag-india","tag-indusface","tag-medical-facilities","tag-metaverse-technology","tag-mlat","tag-mutual-legal-assistance-treaty","tag-nft-technology","tag-north-korea","tag-power-grids","tag-quad","tag-real-time-information-sharing","tag-soul-bound-token","tag-state-level-infrastructure","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-token-technology","tag-unodc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389514,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389498\/revisions\/389514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Expediting information sharing<\/h2>\n
Crucial to track cybercrimes<\/h2>\n