Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 – GCI India Ranks Among Top 10 in ITU’s

Hello Aspirants!

Today, we are here to talk about the global cybersecurity index 2020. We will be discussing in detail about the index, its significance, ranking of countries in the index and other important points related to it. 

What is the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI)?

It is an initiative to raise awareness about cybersecurity and to measure the commitment of countries to cybersecurity at global level. Each country’s level of development is assessed along five pillars – (a) Legal Measure, (b) Technical Measures (c) Organizational Measures, (d) Capacity Development and (v) Cooperation. 

GCI 2021

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency for Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) released the 4^th Edition of Global Cybersecurity Index for 2020.

The index measures 194 country’s commitment to cybersecurity at global level. Each country’s level of development was assessed on the basis of five pillars mentioned above and then aggregated into an overall score. It was assessed through a question- based online survey.

 The countries were asked 82 questions where 20 indicators were measured. Through consultation with a group of experts, these questions were weighted to arrive at the final GCI score.

Key Points made by the report

• More than 70% cybersecurity awareness campaigns were done in 2020.
• The report stated that over half of the countries around the world have formed a National Computer Incident Team (CIRT), thereby showing an 11% increase since 2018.
• 64% of the countries adopted a National Cybersecurity Strategy by 2020. 
• It was also stated that many countries and regions are weak in areas like Cybersecurity skills training, Finance, energy, and other key sectors.

Global Ranking of countries in the GCI 2021

The top rank was scored by the US with a score of 100. It was followed by the UK and Saudi Arabia in the next spot with a tie. Estonia bagged the third rank. 

India’s spot in the GCI Ranking

India ranked as the 10^th best country in the world with a global score of 97.5 in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020.  In the last edition of 2018, India was placed at 47^th spot with a global score of 0.719. This year it jumped 37 places thereby indicating India’s success and commitment to cybersecurity. It also ranked 4^th in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Among other countries Lithuania came sixth followed by Japan, Canada, and France before India.  Neighbours China and Pakistan were ranked 33 and 79 respectively. Turkey (score – 97.49) ranked 11, Germany (score – 97.41) ranked 13 and Israel (score – 90.93) was ranked 36. 

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Headquarters – Geneva, Switzerland

Secretary General – Houlin Zhao

With this we come to the end of this blog. We have covered in detail all the relevant points related to the ‘Global Cybersecurity Index’. We discussed India’s improvement in the index as well. 

We will be back with more such blogs.

Till then stay tuned!