cybersecurity startups: Support homegrown cybersecurity startups, MeitY secretary urges industry and government

India, which doesn’t have a “particularly friendly neighbourhood” has to be prepared for cyber attacks from a large number of “threat actors”, ministry of electronics & information technology (MeitY) secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.

He said the growth of homegrown cybersecurity companies and startups needs to be supported and that collaboration between public and private sectors is essential in this area of national priority.

“We have to be prepared, especially in a country like India, where you don’t live in a particularly friendly neighbourhood,” Krishnan said. “You have to be prepared for a large number of threat actors, a large number of people who are constantly trying to break into what we are doing.”

He was addressing the Nasscom-Data Security Council of India summit on cybersecurity in the national capital.

“We need a truly major public-private partnership, and it necessarily needs to be national and domestic at one level, which is why it’s so important to have Indian companies do this, and Indian companies to do well,” Krishnan said.

Innovators and up-to-date skills are critical to address cybersecurity issues in a space which is constantly changing, Krishnan added.

He said that given the size of the country and its IT sector, it is only a matter of time before Indian companies become global leaders in the cybersecurity space. Companies can leverage the domestic market opportunity to eventually scale globally.The government has taken steps to support the sector by, for instance, directly placing orders for cybersecurity products from Indian startups and entities, and at the policy level recently by clearly allocating cybersecurity responsibilities among different ministries to ensure attention to each dimension, Krishnan said.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act too will come into force soon, he added.

More needs to be done, however, in skilling and specialised cybersecurity courses in colleges, he said.

“My request to larger Indian companies, potential buyers, potential investors, is this is the space that you need to look at to help the nascent startups grow and become global level players,” Krishnan said.

Speaking at the same event, DSCI chairman Pramod Bhasin said the government can support Indian cybersecurity companies by being a “huge customer”.

He cautioned that the more India digitises, the more risk and distrust there may be in cyberspace. At the same time, cybersecurity is a growing market and adequate training can ensure employment opportunities for the youth.

Nasscom president Rajesh Nambiar said cybersecurity is increasingly one of the top priorities of CEOs and board members. With data becoming a major source of competitive advantage for organisations and countries, building cyber-resilience will be key.