SEBI chief says cybersecurity now a board-level issue

SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Monday that cybersecurity has become a board-level, business-continuity, market-integrity and investor-confidence issue, not just an IT challenge. Speaking at a SEBI symposium on cyber defence, Pandey warned that deploying artificial intelligence in critical infrastructure must be done carefully, as automation introduces new risks. He added that AI for cybersecurity must itself be secure, governed and accountable.

Pandey also flagged the future threat of quantum computing to current cryptographic systems, stressing the need for 'crypto-agility' and 'quantum readiness' as resilience programmes, not science fiction. SEBI launched two portals: a revamped Incident Reporting Portal aligned with global standards, and the Cyber Suraksha Portal, a central hub for sharing cybersecurity knowledge, vulnerability warnings and incident insights across the securities market ecosystem.

Pandey urged regulators and countries to share best practices, noting that in cyberspace, collective resilience depends on the strength of connections. He called for faster evolution of cyber defence and for every organisation to have a tested incident-response and recovery plan.