'Cyber education needed to tackle threats'

India needs secure systems and networks to tackle the increasing threats against the cyber security of the country, Gulshan Rai, director general of the Indian government's Computer Emergency Response Team said Thursday.

Inaugurating the Cyber Security Education and Research Centre of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) here at its Delhi campus, he said that around half a million people are required in the next five years to address issues related to cyber security.

"We need to train our people to help understand integration of technology, so that we indeed have a strong force to tackle cyber security", Rai said.

He said countries like Japan, South Korea and the US have specialised programmes and people in this area. Even Singapore has its own programme to train people in the field of cyber security.

To fight all sorts of cyber security threats, Gulshan Rai said, "We need cyber security education, re-orientation of IITs', NITs' and IIITs' certification programmes, and research and development".

He pointed out that few institutions in the country are dealing with this issue. Security of systems at the mobile level is vital, he said, and to deal with the task, people with advanced training, M.Tech and Ph.D-level knowledge and ability, would be needed.

The centre at the IIIT-D will engage in high-level education, technical training and research, with the aim of helping various stakeholders like the government, industry and general public ensure cyber security.

"As people, institutions and services move online, cyber-security has become critically important. This calls for sustained and high-quality education and research in this field," said Kiran Karnik, chairman of the IIIT-D Board of Governors.