The invisible layer: Cyber resilience as the backbone of travel infrastructure

By Suraj Tiwari, Chief Information Security Officer, VFS Global

Conversations around the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act are intensifying, and rightly so. As nations modernise their data governance frameworks, the global travel ecosystem sits at the intersection of policy, technology, and personal security. Behind every seamless visa application, biometric enrollment, airline check-in, and border clearance lies a vast and highly specialised IT infrastructure, one that processes millions of sensitive interactions in real time. This digital scaffolding may be invisible to travelers, but it carries the weight of global mobility. As dependence on interconnected systems grows, cyber resilience is no longer just a technical capability, it has become the backbone that keeps international travel safe, predictable, and trusted.

The expanding threat surface of global mobility
Digital transformation has enabled extraordinary efficiencies in the travel sector. But it has also expanded the attack surface in ways that were ...