Are digital payments secure enough for the Indian economy to go cashless?

Although the Indian government and the corresponding relevant agencies have taken a lot of steps ahead in the field of digital security, security is an issue which will always be present. When there was only cash (no digital payments), the major security issue was a direct loss of cash through physical theft and burglary which required only physical strength and skill. This could be done locally by thieves and by physically being present. But at present, in the case of online payments, it requires a great amount of knowledge and skill for a fraudster to carry out a false transaction. But this does not require physical presence and our economy could be vulnerable globally which makes it difficult to track back to the criminals. This has led to an increase in smart cybercriminals, which requires the security agencies to be smarter. The hackers always try to find out new ways to breach security, which require our agencies to be on alert always. Although OTPs and PINs provide a high level of security, there are still ways to reach them.

As far as our India is concerned, it is ranked 23rd in the global cyber-security index. And it also ranks 3rd in the number of cyber threats faced (according to Symantec). So first of all, our country needs to increase the number of cyber-security officers, and their skill and intelligence before going completely cashless.

And as mentioned by our friends, the literacy rate in our country is not very high, especially in the field of cybersecurity. So I don't believe that India is still ready to go completely cashless, in spite of the innumerable advantages, due to the complex nature of risks involved. But I believe that a large part of our economy will become cashless in the coming five years.

This is actually a very good question for GD.

Digital payments in India has both advantages and disadvantages. Many of them say that the online transactions are not secure enough. But they are very much protected unless people share their private details. The recent incident was that a woman shared her OTP, passwords and everything to a person. And he robbed her money from her account. So the people who are not aware of these kind of payments are better not to use them. Coming to other situation, if we want to transfer money to a person who lives in other town, where he needs money for an emergency operation. If the day you were going to transfer is a holiday for banks or you need to stand in queues to get your turn. You can't keep a persons life in danger. So in these cases the digital payments play a very crucial role. We can instantly transfer money to his account.

So, from my point of view, India is still a developing country. Now in the present situation, we can't depend entirely on digital payments. But in future, I am pretty sure that we will see our country using only digital payments.

I would like to say that it is secure enough because of the huge IT industry paving the way in India. It has become a hub.

Though still ,we see India lags behind in total amount it pays through the digital transaction. It is because of behavioural change we don't want we feel we have money when we have hardbound currency in our pockets. Digital payment includes all the money we use in form of debit card, credit card, transfer through the account, payment through mobile wallets. Illiteracy is also a major challenge for digital India. The government and people should have to work together to increase the digital payments. However 100% cashless is also not safe there should be a balance between both type of payment so that we do not lose everything if sometimes like ransomware like wanna cry gets released.

With digital payments, there is always a risk involved. The risk of data theft and we have seen the example of Cambridge Analytica. And moreover to that India has the slowest 4g net in the world. Every day we hear about the transactions being stuck in the middle, banks running out of connectivity etc. So hitherto the digital payments are not something we shall look up to. We can use the digital payments for paying a small amount but when it comes to transferring a hell lot of money, everyone wants a complacent gateway and digital payments are not providing it.

The way I think India is good enough to go cashless because government are already introduced some sites like BHIM, paytm and many more and they are secure as they provide UPI gave Otp to the number which is register to that account, the only thing we need to do is to aware people about not to share the OTP and password to anyone we can't blame government For security its in our hand.

Are digital payments secure or not, understand before we discuss understands what is digital payment.

Breakdown:

Digital Payment: MerchantIt is a type of payment made by a consumer/buyer who consume/buy any service or product from any merchant and paid him the amount digitally (not involving any physical cash cheque or demandThe merchant may be an online store or a local shop.

In Digital Payment we have two parties. One is service provider/Merchant and other is a customer. Security of digital payments depends on this two party. Each has its own role.

Customer: customer has to use its mind and basic intelligence while doing digital transactions. Some tips are:.

Never share confidential information with anyone over the phone not even to bank personally.

Bank personal never ask for any information over the phone.

Never share OTP.

Change transaction/login password regularly.

Keep update mobile no. In a bank account to receive transaction related alerts.

Never keep the debit card and PIN together.

Check the genuinely of the merchant also by observing the URL of merchant website (use common sense).

Update antivirus regularly.

Merchant: All renowned merchant use better security at their servers and protect customer data by using high-level encryption. They never share customer\'s mobile no with the third party and never save customer\'s confidential information.

So shop from renowned and trusted online stores.

There is one more party who works in background i.e. your BANK.

The possibility of leaking information from the bank is zero. Bank uses a high level of security to keep your money safe.

In recent days a lot of channels are available for digital payments like Mobile banking, Internet Banking, Debit/Credit card, Virtual cards, Wallets, USSD, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM).

BHIM is an initiative to enable fast, secure, reliable cashless payments through a mobile phone. BHIM is interoperable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications, and bank accounts for quick money transfers. UPI which is highly secured payment channel and most of the banks in India offering their services through it.

CONCLUSION: Digital payments in INDIA are secured and the user has to be little attentive while doing digital transactions to keep hard earned money safe.

Last year in middle of October it was reported that a huge data security breach took place on debit cards. Nearly 3.2 million debit cards were affected. The worst affected was SBI, HDFC, ICICI and YES bank.

We can't just shun this incident as an aberration and won't happen again. India still lags far behind providing its citizens cyber securities. So I do not think with the current digital infrastructure India is.

Ready to go completely cashless, not yet.

But with more tight cyber laws and monitoring system it might. We also have to consider that literacy rate.

In India is 75%. And almost 70% people still lives in rural India. So in order to implement cashless transactions first we need to apprise the rural population about digital payment methods, current UPI and BHIM payment system. Huge campaign on digital literacy from Government is imperative to achieve.

The goal of Cash less economy and implement digital payment system in sections of society.

Hallo friends, as I am a banker, I prefer for digitalization. Because there will be a less cash transaction hassle free for theft or fraud. Though older generations are little bit feeling awkward, still they are trying their best to adopt it. But younger generation are easily accepting. But the only thing is network problem in India. No network service provider is providing as stipulated in their manifesto. Still, we are far behind the developing country. So Government has to take strong initiation to provide a network to the customer. Due to digital payment, the firm, company, and individuals are bound to show their income and for this, they will pay the tax to Govt. And Govt. Will get revenue and development work in the country will run fast. But the only thing is company, firms they are using the profit portion for their personal use. Govt. Has to make a rule for them to check this and get more revenue from them verifying digital payments. It is a good opportunity for Govt. To close look at the people who are not paying tax or less tax payer. There is a certain problem with digital payment i.e. transaction failure and money will be credited to a/c after a certain period. An Illiterate person will not accept this. Still, hope that digital payment will be more effective now and in future. When digital payment in India touch at 80% then we will get the new India having a beautiful infrastructure and smart people. Thank you.

According to me, it is essential for our economy to become cashless. And it is the best time to get digital and we have best infrastructure to secure digital payment. Because what really matter for us is to take a start to go cashless and our system will become more secured with passage of time and awareness of people about cyber crime.

Digital payment is concerned with the act Digital India which is initiated by our government Narendra Modi with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society.

It is a way in which payment is made through digital mode and we don't have to carry cash when we want to buy anything and anytime.

As in this modern era, everyone is getting inclined towards the modernisation and no one wants to follow the old tradition this is also obvious because technology is advancing day by day. So digital payment helping us and our country in modernisation.

If we talk about the security for the Indian economy to go cashless I think it is more secure than before because here no cash is involved so no risk of the thief and it is more convenient and transparent mode and here transactions are completed in a shorter time.

So we can say it is more secure and efficient for our economy which helps in increasing the growth rate of our country.