Mapping cybersecurity literacy: inequality, capability, and digital vulnerability in India

Abstract Cybersecurity literacy has become a global concern as digital infrastructures expand rapidly, exposing populations to risks associated with fraud, misinformation, and data exploitation. Yet empirical evidence on how cybersecurity literacy remains sparse. This study examines India, one of the world’s largest and fastest-digitising societies, to assess the extent and social stratification of cybersecurity literacy. Using nationally representative data from the 79th Round of the National Sample Survey (July 2022 to June 2023), encompassing 9,70,934 individuals, the analysis maps cybersecurity skills across caste, gender, education, age, income, and region. The findings reveal extremely low levels of cybersecurity literacy nationwide, with only 15.7 percent of adults able to perform basic digital security tasks. These deficits are unevenly distributed, with rural women from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities exhibiting the lowest levels of security capability. Framed through the Capability Approach and second-level digital divide perspectives, the results show that expanding digital access does not guarantee secure or equitable participation. Without targeted interventions that address structural inequalities, digital transformation risks entrenching existing forms of inequality and creating new layers of digital insecurity.