IT industry body Nasscom on Monday advised technology companies to strengthen operational preparedness and cybersecurity frameworks in the wake of the evolving geopolitical situation in West Asia, cautioning that periods of uncertainty can heighten risks of disruptions and cyber threats.
Issuing a fresh advisory to member companies, Nasscom said while business operations currently remain stable, organisations are proactively reviewing contingency plans and strengthening resilience measures to mitigate potential disruptions "should the situation evolve over time".
The advisory comes amid conflict in West Asia following US and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered retaliatory missile and drone attacks, disrupting airspace and raising concerns over regional stability, cyber threats, and potential spillover effects on global technology infrastructure, travel routes, and maritime trade.
The widening conflict has also rattled global markets, as investors turned cautious amid fears around interruption in the global supply of oil and gas, as well as logistics and technology-related disruptions.
Stock market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled nearly 3% in early trade on Monday as boiling crude oil prices and bearish trend in global equities weighed heavily on investors' sentiment.
In a statement on Monday, Nasscom said: "In light of the evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East, Nasscom has issued another advisory to member companies urging heightened vigilance and preparedness across business continuity and cybersecurity frameworks."
Companies have been asked to activate business continuity plans and ensure operational readiness for countries that may be impacted by potential disruptions. Firms are also prioritising employee safety by enabling work-from-home arrangements for staff in affected areas and closely monitoring the situation on the ground.
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The advisory also recommends that companies evaluate alternate routing options for cloud infrastructure and data centres to maintain system resilience and safeguard critical services.
"Alternate options for cloud and data centre resilience in impacted areas - Firms are evaluating alternate infrastructure routing to ensure cloud and data centre resilience and safeguard critical systems," Nasscom statement said.
Companies are also advising employees to limit non-essential travel through the region and explore alternative transit routes where required.
The association noted that periods of geopolitical uncertainty often see a rise in coordinated cyber threats, disinformation campaigns, and infrastructure targeting.
"Organisations are therefore advised to strengthen their cybersecurity posture" and immediately prioritise aspects like credential reset and accelerated patching, supply chain audit, "enforce multi-factor authentication on all external access paths and implement conditional access controls to counter token-theft and adversary-in-the-middle attacks".
"Assess all third-party vendors with Middle Eastern exposure. One compromised vendor can cascade into sector-wide disruption," Nasscom cautioned.
On DDoS surge readiness, it advocated engaging ISPs and cloud providers for DDoS scrubbing capacity.
Put simply, Distributed Denial-of-Service or DDoS attack refers to a malicious, disruptive attempt on a server or network by overwhelming it with massive internet traffic from compromised systems.
"Awareness around Disinformation: Conduct employee awareness on social engineering attacks themed around possible war like situation, govt. alerts with intent to cause harm," Nasscom statement on its advisory said.
The association further said it continues to monitor the evolving situation in parts of the Middle East and remains in regular contact with the Middle East Council to assess developments on the ground and extend support where required.
The industry body is also coordinating with relevant authorities wherever possible to assist member company employees who may be currently in the region.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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