India’s digital transformation journey is rapid, but this progress brings unprecedented challenges. As cloud adoption sweeps across nearly every industry, the nation’s digital economy is poised to expand at almost double the rate of the overall economy. However, this swift technological advancement and the new capabilities it unlocks also mean that the threat landscape is growing in tandem with India’s expanding digital footprint.
The scale of this challenge is stark: India could attract nearly 1 trillion cyberattacks annually by 2033, and by the time it turns 100 in 2047, the country could be a target of 17 trillion cyberattacks, according to projections.
Sectors handling sensitive financial and personal data, such as healthcare and financial services, have been particularly vulnerable. Notably, cyber-attacks are also becoming more deliberate, meticulously planned, and sophisticated. Furthermore, the impact of these attacks on Indian businesses is too substantial to ignore. These developments highlight the importance of stronger cybersecurity postures in Indian organisations transforming digitally with hybrid work and cloud blurring traditional boundaries.
The quest for a better way to protect organisational assets, users, and data ends with a security strategy built around Zero Trust – trust no user or device. As the digital equivalent of verifying ID, even if you’ve seen the person before, businesses must make it their go-to approach to secure their network and devices. In doing so, they have the opportunity to take charge of who accesses what and how in their network and hold out better against threat actors in an increasingly uncertain future.
Never trust, always verify
Using zero trust principles, organisations gain an evolving set of cybersecurity paradigms that shifts the focus to users, assets, and resources, rather than trying to secure static, network-based perimeters. This can include a series of measures to limit breach impact and lateral movement. They benefit by containing risk, continuously monitoring new entities and improving visibility along their network, and reducing the IT team’s workload.
Analysing data from over 22,000 security incidents and 12,195 confirmed data breaches spanning 139 countries, Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report revealed that stolen credentials remain the leading initial access vector, present in 22% of all breaches, and the “human element” continues to contribute to approximately 60% of all confirmed breaches, often through social engineering tactics like phishing. More importantly, third-party involvement in 30% of all breaches.
Today, organisations cannot avoid employing third-party resources. However, they can use zero trust to help security teams define distinct access policies for each specific employee or third-party resource to lower the risk of unwarranted exposure or breaches.
Zero trust can also be crucial in securing hybrid working environments where remote workers and bring-your-own-device options could present risks of unsecured IT assets and personal mobile devices. For instance, through a least-privilege access policy, a remote user or entity can be restricted to access only specific data, resources, and applications required to complete a task.
Banks in India already follow a system of multi-factor authentication using One Time Passwords (OTPs) to protect online transactions. Another approach is continuous authentication, where the system monitors biometric or behavioural data on an ongoing basis to detect and flag anomalies. In cloud deployments, micro-segmentation can stem the extent of a breach—here the network is divided into segments, each with its security controls.
Balancing security, protection, and privacy
Organisations must achieve this fine balance given their limitations of available resources and capabilities. Those investing heavily in digital and IoT-based technologies will struggle to implement zero trust with new users, devices, and pathways to access and store data almost continuously getting added to their network. Enforcing zero trust can deter growth if security goals are not properly aligned with business goals.
Organisational culture can make or break the implementation of zero trust as a strategy. Zero trust enforcement can be mistaken as a lack of trust and bring down the morale and productivity of employees. Educating all stakeholders and getting leadership buy-in on the principles of zero trust is therefore critical.
In parallel, zero trust strategies must keep pace with changing infrastructure. This requires due diligence over the long term to constantly evaluate and update policies and processes. An experienced partner can help secure all layers of the network, from core infrastructure components such as servers to edge devices such as mobiles and home networking equipment.
End-to-end security: The way forward
Cybersecurity in the digital era is about protecting the organisation from attacks by external actors and the enemy within. Therefore, building the right cybersecurity architecture for end-to-end security is a key responsibility for decision-makers. Otherwise, any vulnerable entry point could be breached to compromise valuable digital assets. This can cause not only severe financial losses but also immeasurable reputational damage.
India must continue its path of rapid digital transformation and economic growth, but not without tightening its stance on addressing security vulnerabilities. A zero-trust approach in building infrastructure and security policies will be a vital part of how effectively the country protects itself in a rapidly advancing threat landscape.