India’s Stock Exchange Under Siege: What 170 Million Daily Attacks Means

The scale is frightening — and real

Listen, this isn’t a small scare. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is reportedly dealing with roughly 170 million cyberattacks every single day. That’s not a typo. In a stress test called Operation Sindoor, the exchange saw simulated attempts spike to about 400 million in one day. Those numbers make it clear: attackers are relentless, likely coordinated, and the threat to India’s financial plumbing is no longer hypothetical.

I’ll be blunt — when a market runs into millions or hundreds of millions of probes a day, it’s not just an IT problem. It’s a national stability issue. Trading could be slowed, data could be stolen, or worse, market trust could wobble. People who’ve worked on trading floors tell me even small outages create panic. Now imagine that multiplied across a whole economy.

How NSE is fighting back

NSE isn’t sitting on its hands. They’ve built layered defenses: a 24/7 team of “cyber warriors”, advanced tools using AI and machine learning, and a backup operational setup that kicks in automatically if things go sideways. They also force regular Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) for trading members and limit risky things like uncontrolled email and data transfers.

There’s active collaboration with cybersecurity agencies and a push to bring international threat intelligence into the mix. That all sounds solid. But the volume and sophistication of the attacks suggest defenses need constant upgrading. Cyber threats evolve fast — and the attackers seem to be able to scale up at will.

Why this matters to regular people

You might think, “This is big firms’ problem,” but it trickles down. A successful breach could disrupt trading, push volatility up, and shave value off pensions and mutual funds many people rely on. Even the fear of disruption could make investors pull back, hurting liquidity and making markets jumpier. And trust? That’s fragile. Once shaken, it’s hard to rebuild.

Also, this could be a wake-up call for other financial players. If the NSE is facing this level of pressure, smaller institutions could be next. It seems likely we’ll see more spending on cybersecurity across the board — because prevention is cheaper than crisis control.

What should happen next — my take

Regulators should stop treating cybersecurity as an add-on. Exchanges are infrastructure. They need mandatory, enforceable standards, transparent reporting when attacks happen, and routine independent audits that actually test resilience under stress. The NSE is doing important work — the people there deserve credit. But the scale of these attacks suggests we need national-level coordination and investment, not just company-level fixes.