Cyber Risk, Critical Infrastructure & National Resilience | Alok Pandey, CISO

India’s railways, healthcare systems, power grids, and digital payments now operate on deeply interconnected digital infrastructure. As systems scale, cyber risk is no longer an IT issue. It is a matter of national resilience.

In this episode of CyberSuraksha Dialogues, we speak with Alok Shankar Pandey, GGM IT and CISO at Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), to understand how cyber threats to critical infrastructure can trigger cascading disruption across society, the economy, and governance.

Drawing from his experience as a former Indian Army officer and a leader in mission critical telecom and cybersecurity initiatives, Alok Pandey shares a grounded view of how India must think about cyber risk at scale.

What this episode covers

• How cyber risk evolved from analog and circuit switched systems to packet based, 5G and IoT driven environments
• Why cybersecurity incidents are low probability but extremely high impact for nations
• How cyber attacks on railways, healthcare, aviation and power systems can disrupt lives without physical force
• Why security by design often fails as technology lifecycles move at different speeds
• How expanding digital attack surfaces turn progress into strategic vulnerability
• Why state sponsored cyber threats pose the greatest risk to critical infrastructure
• How fragmented cyber laws weaken governance and enforcement
• Why compliance fatigue exists and how harmonised regulation can address it
• What it takes to modernise legacy PSU systems without exposing national assets
• Why digitally triggered chaos escalates faster than institutions can respond

Guest

Alok Shankar Pandey
GGM IT and CISO, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited
Former Indian Army Officer

Host

Mohit Sharma
CEO and Co Founder, Veloxx Media

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction
02:06 The reality of being a PSU CISO
04:24 From analog to packet switched risk
09:32 5G, IoT and AI in the railway ecosystem
16:13 Security by design vs risk management
20:25 Cyber attacks as national disruption
27:03 Why India needs harmonised cyber regulation
32:46 Modernising legacy systems in PSUs
37:18 Technology shifts that changed everything
41:38 Closing reflections

About CyberSuraksha Dialogues

CyberSuraksha Dialogues is a Veloxx Media original podcast series decoding cybersecurity, digital governance, national resilience, emerging technologies and policy—from the lens of those securing India’s most critical systems.
For collaborations or inquiries:
info@veloxxmedia.com
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