At a glance.
- India looks to implement Digital Public Infrastructures.
- US Senate commissions study to discover the benefits and risks of creating a “Cyber Force” as the seventh branch of the military.
India looks to implement Digital Public Infrastructures.
The Wire reports that Indian law enforcement have arrested individuals suspected of involvement in the recent CoWIN data breach, which stole personal medical information of Indian citizens. This development comes after the Indian government has shared plans for implementing Digital Public Infrastructure as a public service. “Such developments have occurred in the backdrop of the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY’s) ‘Global DPI Summit’ in Pune on June 12 and 13. The event, part of India’s ambit of initiatives as the G20 president-nation, showcased ‘Digital Public Infrastructures’ such as CoWIN, UPI and Aadhaar, underscoring ways in which they had revolutionised service delivery,” the Wire writes.
While the technology has been met with “techno-optimism,” implementation of DPIs has received some criticism: it essentially involves putting all of a country's eggs in one basket, the Wire explains. “Given the vast amounts of data collection, processing, and exchange associated with DPIs, citizens are at considerable risk of their data being leaked and their privacy rights being compromised, as seen with the recent leak. While such proposals may hold merit, fundamental questions around whether such an approach is suitable for a sector, given its context, have been sidestepped. Questions such as whether a digital solution is the most pressing need for a sector, and if it is, whether such a digital solution should take the form of a DPI, remain painfully absent from proposals and plans. Even discussions around whether a sector has appropriate institutional structures to support such an intervention are conspicuously omitted in the current paradigm. Factors such as digital readiness of the sector, the demographics of the proposed user base, and the existence of clear legislation and regulatory enforcement mechanisms also determine the efficacy of deploying DPI in a given sector.” Another relevant factor is the reallocation of funding from competing resources to the institution of a DPI. “The scale of DPI initiatives raises serious questions around public finance, especially in low-resource environments,” the Wire concludes.
US Senate commissions study to discover the benefits and risks of creating a “Cyber Force” as the seventh branch of the military.
The US Senate has ordered a study into the efficacy of a seventh military service dedicated to cyber warfare. The Register reports, “The provision is a sign that some lawmakers want DoD to consider establishing a seventh, cyber-specific military branch despite years of resistance from Pentagon brass. The Senate Armed Services Committee added the proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) during a two-day, closed-door markup of its fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).”
This decision is probably due to the manning issue of Cyber Command having to source its personnel from the various services, and the stresses that occur from the mandated three-to-four-year rotations some services require of their members. One benefit of such a Cyber Service could be a more stable workforce that could maintain a state of readiness and expertise in its field. However, this could also result in stagnation, as the rotation that brings diversity of experience might be missed. Additionally, as the Register points out, “DoD leaders have shied away from advocating for a separate service — worried that doing so would cause the branches to stop caring about cybersecurity entirely or sow confusion within the military’s already existing cyber infrastructure.” The Senate previously commissioned a similar study, but the Department of Defense failed to provide any meaningful input regarding the creation of a Cyber Force.
