IIT Kanpur eyeing to top cyber security domain in India

In the backdrop of rising cyber security threats and cyber domain frauds globally, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) is eyeing the top slot in cyber security research and services in India.

The premier Institute is strategically building upon its capacity and is seeking central funds to further augment its cyber security research and training activities.

Last month, IIT-K had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to enhance the cyber domain security of India's leading bourse.

It would span cooperation in cyber security research in financial markets, foster environment to deal with current & future cyber challenges, developing tools to strengthen cyber security and advise BSE in cyber issues, assist BSE in testing vulnerabilities in IT system and network and forming guidelines and auditing security operations.

"We have already launched a Centre for Cyber Security in the campus and are working with the central government for more funding," Prof Sandeep Shukla of the faculty of computer science in IIT-K told Business Standard.

The Centre is engaged in developing cutting edge cyber security technologies and developing closer ties with the government organisations and industries to develop relevant technology, methodologies and cyber security frameworks for India.

Meanwhile, the Institute had forwarded two separate proposals to the union finance and science & technology ministries seeking funding to the tune of Rs 100 crore to fortify its research & development (R&D) in cyber security domain.

The funds would help the Institute hire more exerts and train more students in the field and at the same time create better infrastructure facilities in the campus, he said.

"India needs more R&D in cyber security and we want to become the 'go to place' in this domain in the next couple of years. We are aiming to provide cyber security to vital installations such as the Power Grid and other private organisations," Prof Agarwal underlined.

The Institute has also been engaging with the private sector and industry associations.

Simultaneously, IIT-K is forging alliances with some top institutions known for their in-depth cyber security research globally.

Recently, the Institute had signed a MoU with the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC) of Tel Aviv University, Israel to facilitate bi-lateral academic relationships, cooperative research and teaching projects.

The two institutions have decided upon areas of bi-lateral scientific relationships, cooperative research and teaching projects. These include smart agriculture, smart city, sewage and water treatment, machine learning, signal processing, alternative governance models for cyber security, big data analytics, utilities, transportation and privacy-preserving cryptography and cryptanalysis.

Earlier, IIT-K had collaborated with the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University in student/faculty exchange and research collaboration.