Karnataka govt partners with Dell for cyber safety practices

Karnataka government's centre of excellence (CoE) for cybersecurity, CySecK, the nodal agency to promote a cyber-safe environment for industry collaboration, has partnered with Dell Technologies India to strengthen cyber-security in the state. This partnership is driven towards building a safe and secure digital environment for students, startups, government, and other stakeholders in the state.   

As part of this collaboration, Dell Technologies through its “Tech for Social Good” initiative will roll out interactive courses on cyber hygiene best practices for school students which will also be made available in Kannada. These programs will also be curated for small and medium scale enterprises as well as for government functionaries.   

Through its ‘Ascend’ program, Dell Technologies will offer tech mentorship and bundled solutions whereby CySecK’s cohort of start-ups would acquire relevant exposure and assistance on various aspects, including go-to-market strategies, as well as value additions to the products/ services.  

The program will also include ‘Tech Teardown’ sessions where Dell Technologies experts are going to have 1:1 session with select start-ups, to aid them with a technology and cyber security roadmap for business optimisation.   

Dell Technologies will also be working with CySecK to improve the ‘cyber recovery’ maturity for both private and public sectors in the state, the IT firm said in a statement.  

"The idea is to create awareness among students, start-ups, and government bodies while also reaching out to IT teams across the state to build a cyber resilient ecosystem," said Karthik Bappanad, Centre Head, Centre of Excellence in Cybersecurity at CySecK. 

The government has a vision for Karnataka to have a 300 billion digital economy by 2025 and this kind of digitalisation needs a strong foundation of cybersecurity, he said. 

“Through this partnership, we wish to leverage our expertise in cyber security to protect stakeholders from the most extreme forms of cyber-attacks and provide the state with technology solutions that will empower them to keep their business agile, secure, and growing, in today’s rapidly changing environment," said Ripu Bajwa, Director and General Manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies, India.    

Several projects are aiming to establish India as a leading hub by accelerating the development of cybersecurity technologies in the country.  In 2020, the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) in partnership with Data Security Council of India (DSCI), launched the National Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity in Noida to provide impetus towards product innovation in the Cyber Security start-up ecosystem in the country.  It includes incubation for startups, a technology research lab, a unique infrastructure for things like forensics and testing, security training and so on. 

In May 2022, the Central government said that it has allocated ₹515 crore for cybersecurity programs for the year 2022-23 to create an atmosphere of safety and trust and addressed cyber security online. The government is also collaborating with technology companies, security providers, academia and other private players in areas like security training, upskilling and to deal with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing.