Google is launching a new pan-India online safety campaign with plans of upskilling 100,000 developers and IT professionals on the latest cybersecurity norms and safety tools.
“We want to empower startups, developers, and IT professionals with unique tools, detailed guidance and best practices for building safer apps, by embedding security in all phases of development and adopting modern IT technology. It’s not just for individuals or businesses. It’s across the range of types of businesses, the range of types of individuals, and even the public sector,” Royal Hansen, Vice President of Security at Google said in a media briefing ahead of the announcement.
He added that Google will also continue to work with banks and the public sector as it starts this cyber security roadshow going forward. According to Hansen, one reason Google is focusing on cybersecurity in India is the increasing number of cyber threats that the country is witnessing.
“Phishing scams are up 10 times tenfold in the last two years. In 2022, in the first quarter alone, India saw 18 million cyber-attacks and around 200,000 threats a day,” Hansen added stressing that it was no longer a question of if someone will be attacked, but when and rather whether they will be able to defend themselves.
Royal Hansen, Vice President of Security at Google
He also said that Google is investing in quantum computing and “anticipating the ways in which quantum computing will be used by bad actors to decrypt many of the existing encryption algorithms.”
Google’s cybersecurity campaign will launch in various cities, though it has not specified which ones will be targeted first. Google will also launch a multilingual user awareness campaign supported by the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MEITY) and Digital India Corporation to encourage millions of internet users to adopt better practices for safer digital transactions. It will partner with HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Airtel, SBI, and ICICI for the multi-lingual digital safety campaign. The campaign encourages people to adopt basic precautions to stay two steps ahead of some of the most common fraud and phishing techniques and attacks.
It has also announced a first-ever digital safety-focused grant of a total of $2 million from Google.org in India to non-profit organizations including Collective Good Foundation, Point Of View, and HelpAge India. These are aimed to ensure that high-risk groups such as women, micro-entrepreneurs, seniors, and the LGBTQIA+ community “leverage the opportunity of the internet with safety and confidence,” the company said in a press statement.
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