It will train 3,000 professionals to
fight online space attacks, internet crimes
The Maharashtra
Government has taken the first step towards setting up a varsity dedicated to
mitigating cyber threats. It has set aside Rs. 80 crore for the first round of its
funding and the proposal for the project will be tabled in the State cabinet’s
consideration in the first week of October, sources said.
The new Cyber
University will train 3,000 professionals to fight online space cyber attacks,
internet crimes, and conduct cyber forensics. It will also impart training in
15 other Internet of Things (IoT) areas such as Data Analytics and Artificial
Intelligence (AI).
A team of senior
government officials recently visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT)’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), which
monitors cyber attacks in real time, to acquire technical knowhow. CSAIL’s
latest system correctly predicts about 85% of the world’s cyber attacks using
machine learning and AI. “At the lab we saw in real time that the majority of
the world’s cyber attacks are directed towards Russia, Japan and India,” an
official said.
Cost
of courses
The varsity,
officials said, will provide for and prepare internet professionals on the
lines of the Microsoft Certified Professional Program.The courses will cost
less than Rs. 5 lakh for courses in data analytics, cloud computing,
blockchain, AI, cyber forensics and cyber investigations.
Skill gap
“The current
supply of cyber professionals in the country is about a lakh while the demand
hovers around 30 lakh. A cyber attack is taking place every 10 minutes as
opposed to 12 minutes previously. The varsity will remedy this,” an official
said.
The government
will provide different levels of training and enable affiliated colleges to
impart certification for the 15 courses. The State will also supply
infrastructure for training and education. A 2015 skill gap analysis for
Maharashtra by the consultancy firm KPMG had pointed to a gap of 1.5 crore
professionals in 10 sectors. “Of these, there was a greater shortfall in the
IoT and Cyber Forensics sectors. The new varsity will bridge this skill gap,”
the official said.
Maharashtra is
already in the process of setting up its version of the Indian Computer
Emergency Response Team to ward off external cyber threats. In 2016, the State
had even appointed a consortium of M/s C-DAC (Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing) and Railtel Corporation of India for the Rs. 838-crore
project. The consortium in its analysis used the same technology as GARUDA,
India’s national grid computing initiative, and the Graphics and Intelligence
Based Script Technology, officials said.
Source: THE HINDU-18th September,2018
