Defending the cyber frontiers of Uttar Pradesh

Express Cyber Security Series, Lucknow offered glimpses of the great potential that Uttar Pradesh offers and how enterprises can be made more secure.

With the focus on cyber security, the first edition of Express Cyber Security Series, Lucknow was organized by Express Computer magazine in partnership with computer security software giant, Forcepoint India. Thought leaders, visionaries, policy makers and IT leaders from the state came together to discuss and debate the great potential that Uttar Pradesh offers and how they could be secured.

While delivering his keynote address on the topic of  “Leveraging technology to combat cyber crimes in the state,” Ranjan Dwivedi (IPS), Ex-Director General, UP Police highlighted some of the recent data breach cases and urged the state administration for sustained focus on cyber security. He said that the difference between the cyber and physical world had diminished, and hence government organizations needed to be more vigil about the data and information they have. “Looking at most of the cyber security cases, it is quite clear that breaches happen because of internal and external sources. That is why it is important for government departments to have a robust security framework that address both these challenges,”  Dwivedi said.

During his half an hour address, he also pointed out that most of the security solutions in the country are available only in English language. He said, with such a huge diversity of languages in India, it is imperative that security solution providers incorporate Indian languages in their security products. He gave an example of technology giants like Microsoft and Google, who have have in the recent past have renewed their focus on local languages. “India is a country of different languages. A high level of awareness related to cyber security needs to be created therefore solution should be available in the language that people could understand,” said  Dwivedi.

On the shortage of security professional in government departments, he said, “It is time for the government to scale-up it resources to meet the challenge emanating from digital drive. This could only be addressed if security professionals becomes the part of the government or government gives training to its existing staff.”  He urged to have ‘made in India’ indigenous security products in the security layer of government projects.

Agreeing with the views of Dwivedi, the chief guest, R K Tiwari, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Uttar Pradesh said: “Government of Uttar Pradesh recognizes the need of adequate cyber security for ensuring security and safety of not only the vital infrastructure but also critical data and information.” He informed that the state is very serious about cyber security and he regularly had meetings with members of NIC, SeMT on this topic. “Due to robustness of the IT infrastructure which embed security at different stages, we have fortunately been able to avert cases of cyber security in the state,” he said.

Uttar Pradesh is amongst the few states in the country that has seen growth in electronic citizen services delivery. Various e-governance projects by the different departments in the state have been leveraging the advances in ICT to the benefit of common person especially the rural poor. “We are using IT to make the administration quick, responsive, transparent, hassle-free and accessible, while reducing the inefficiencies and costs,” said  Tiwari.

On the growing adoption of smartphone in the workplace, he was of the view that use of modern technology in day to day life is the reality. But as an organisation or an individual, one has to ensure safety, security of the data and information that are being generated in digital world. He said, “Through the creation of right kind of policy & regulations, better infrastructure and conducive environment, Uttar Pradesh is now making pioneering efforts to ensure cyber security for its tech-infrastructure.”

A major attraction at the event was the “Expert Power Presentation on Cyber Security” by  Forcepoint India team which was presented by Sanjeev Chauhan, Sr Sales Engineer and Harshil Doshi, Strategic Security Solutions Consulting. Both of them informed about different stages of a government project and how all the stages could be safeguarded. They were of the view that concept of security is changing, they are no longer only about firewall or perimeter security. They said that security has become a 24×7 phenomena. “Government organizations must step-up,” said Sanjeev Chauhan, adding that Forcepoint 4D Security offers the strategy to defend, detect, decide and defeat any security threat. He explained that the Forcepoint solution provided a unified cloud-centric platform to defend against attacks, detect suspicious activity sooner, and give the context needed to decide what actions to take to defeat the attack and stop data theft.

On the focus of Forcepoint’s platform, Harshil Doshi said that the focus was on insider threat protection, cloud data protection and network security. Government organizations can leverage these capabilities to safeguard themselves.

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