According to recent reports, the Centre is working to introduce cybersecurity in the school curriculum to educate students about the cybercrime threats in the digital world, a top official from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said at an ASSOCHAM event held in Greater Noida.

“We are already working on a project, whereby we have created content for CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) schools and we are closely interacting with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). We have already prepared the content and given it to them,” said Vinod K Chauhan, Scientist ‘C’, Cyber Security Group, MeitY while addressing an ASSOCHAM Cybersuraksha Youth Awareness Campaign held at Sharda University in Greater Noida.

He also said that MeitY was in the process of notifying a policy for public procurement preference to Make in India to promote domestic cybersecurity industry. “We will come up with a list of cybersecurity tools which will be procured through government procurement and before notifying those cybersecurity tools we will go through with all testing and necessary specifications for those tools.”

Earlier, in his address at the ASSOCHAM conference, Jagmohan Veerbhan, COO, Shreetron India Ltd, Department of IT & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh (UP), informed that the UP government is designing a state-specific cybersecurity policy.

“Shreetron India Ltd has entered into a partnership with Gujarat-based Raksha Shakti University and ECS Infotech Pvt. Ltd for imparting cybersecurity training and awareness,” said Mr Jagmohan. “The policy is in the drafting phase.”

He also said that ECS Infotech Ltd has further technical collaboration with Israel-based HackerU. “Shreetron India Ltd has set up a centre of excellence named ‘Skilltron’ at their Sahibabad campus for imparting the skilling programs.”

He added that the UP Police Department was very serious to impart cybersecurity training to cops and senior-level officers in the police department.

Stressing upon the need for promoting awareness about cybersecurity, Prem K. Gautam, IPS, Superintendent of Police, CBI, said, “People have to be made more and more aware of pitfalls of technology and even cutting-edge police officials are required to be made aware of various technology crime types.”

He added, “If we follow a three-pronged strategy of educate, empower and eradicate, we can fight the war against cybercrime and win it.”

Gautam further said that there is need to empower all stakeholders – be it law enforcement, judiciary, private sector, academia, researchers and others through joint efforts.

Renowned cybersecurity expert, Rakshit Tandon, in his address at the ASSOCHAM event, said, “There is an urgent need to harness the capacity building of youth in cybersecurity in collaboration with industry and academia, understanding of basics Cyber Laws to every individual to be a Law Abiding digital citizen and and to provide us a Safer Digital India.”

He added, “Industry and academia must collaborate and have Cyber Research Centres in University to enable student to expose to latest development with future skills like AI/ Machine Learning and Blockchain.”

Tandon further said that research labs must be set up across the country which can assist Law Enforcement to solve online crimes.

Addressing the ASSOCHAM conference, Ms Meenu Chandra, Senior Attorney, Microsoft, said, “One of the biggest threats IT users face today is tech support fraud. While enforcement authorities are cracking down scamsters, the scale and scope of tech support fraud requires an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

“Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) leverages our global team to investigate fraud and combat cybercrime around the globe, including in India. The DCU is combating cybercrime by (1) using a data-driven approach to investigate tech support fraud networks and refer cases to law enforcement as appropriate, (2) strengthening our technology to better protect consumers from various fraudulent tactics, and (3) educating them about how to stay safe online,” said Ms Chandra.

“We have trained more than 385 law enforcement officers and over 400 prosecutors in India on cybercrime in the past year,” she added. “We are currently playing a key role in the government’s Cyber Surakshit Bharat program, and remain committed partnering the government in fighting this menace.”

Ashutosh Chadha, Group Director, Government Affairs Public Policy, Microsoft India, and an ASSOCHAM member, said, “Recent industry research shows that Indian enterprises are at the forefront in recognizing AI as a disruptive force and are fast adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reinvent their business models. This, combined with the government’s vision that AI should be ‘Made in India’ and ‘Made to Work for India’, we believe we have the opportunity to emerge as a leading force worldwide in IT innovation.”

He also said, “AI systems that concern people will need data about people to function, and in a data-pervasive world, security and privacy will be of supreme importance. At Microsoft, trust and cybersecurity are our No. 1 priority and we have been working closely with the industry and government bodies relentlessly towards this. We are committed to MeitY’s Cyber Surakshit Bharat Program, which is a significant initiative towards increasing awareness and building capacity among CISOs and frontline IT users in the public sector.”

“ASSOCHAM’s Cybersuraksha Youth Awareness Campaign is the next logical step in this direction and aims to make cyber-hygiene a habit among the country’s youth and we are extremely proud to support it,” he further said.