Former President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam called for a more aggressive approach towards cyber security in the country. “Offensive and defensive cyber capabilities are as important for nations to build as the nuclear capabilities. We will soon have only two types of nations – those with cyber offensive and defensive capabilities and those without,” he said, addressing the C0C0N 2014 international cyber security and policing conference that began in Kochi on Friday.
Dr. Kalam called for upgrading India’s cyber security technology, while also investing in education for cyber security. “Cyber attack capabilities require a brilliant trained workforce of youth. Like other nations, talent development exercises must be conducted in large scale to catch them young almost out of school. This would foster hacking talent and get a large brigade of hackers into the system,” he said.
The former President said that several instances had come to light where computers of innocent people had been used by criminals to commit major financial crimes and to hack into sensitive systems, thus compromising national security. He said that Indian cyber security systems should evolve to tackle such threats with speed and efficiency.
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Vice-Admiral S.P.S. Cheema of the Southern Naval Command said the menace of non-State actors in global terror had extended to cyberspace as well. “Threats of cyber crime are of a global nature and need to be addressed with cooperation between countries,” he said.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala inaugurated the two-day conference at a function held earlier in the day. security and policing.