Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.K. next month, the British government will send the country’s first cyber security delegation to India later this week. The mission is a sign of Britain’s increasing focus on developing and exporting its high-end cyber security expertise, which coincides with Mr. Modi’s current push of digitising India.
The delegation, led by Stephen Phipson, head of the U.K. Trade and Industry’s Defence and Security Organisation, will comprise heads of eight private companies which include large firms like BAE Systems as well as small enterprises. Briefing Indian journalists, Mr. Phipson said that as a major actor in the global cyber security industry, Britain was keen to share that experience with countries such as India.
He drew a distinction between Britain’s strengths and that of Silicon Valley. Those are “things that might be used in the higher end enterprise – in a financial services or government type environment, protecting very valuable networks,” he said.
The team will visit Mumbai and New Delhi from the October 11. They will attend a symposium in Mumbai on cyber security at which many Indian entities like the Indian Banks Association, BSE, the Mumbai police and several legal organisations will be present. In New Delhi, the group will attend “CyFy”— the Indian Conference on Cyber Security and the Internet in mid-October.
From the government, they are slated to meet Gulshan Rai, India’s newly appointed cyber security chief.
“The U.K.’s cyber defence industry’s strength is that it has been built by scientists rather than IT specialists,” said Emily Orton of the Cambridge-based cyber-security firm Darktrace, which was set up by mathematicians and former cyber-intelligence experts.
“The traditional approach of a wall around your network to keep threats off is outdated. Our approach assumes your organisation is compromised, and we work like the human immune system by learning and adapting.” She said that in India, cyber-security for large public industrial control systems has a direct impact on the safety of human beings.
India can learn from the U.K. experience in private-public collaboration in cyber security, said Anu Khurmi, cyber security adviso to Templar Executives. The company hopes to work with India in its training of 5,00,000 cyber specialists.
“We believe we can bring in significant skillsets and experience to an already established market in India,” said Mandeep Obhrai, CEO of the Information Assurance Consulting Service.
