Karnataka launches cybersecurity policy to combat rising levels of cybercrimes in the state

The Karnataka government on Thursday launched a cybersecurity policy to combat rising levels of cybercrimes in the State. The policy was drafted by the IT department, the department of personnel and administrative reforms (e-governance), and the home department, in consultation with relevant stakeholders from both the government and private sectors. The policy was also reviewed by the Indian Institute of Science, which is the anchor institute for the state’s K-tech centre of excellence in cyber security.

This policy has two parts. The first part focuses on building a strong cyber security ecosystem across all segments of the State – including public, academia, industry, startups and the government.

The second part of the policy focuses on strengthening the cyber security posture of the State’s IT assets. While the first part will be in public domain, the second part will be internal to the state’s IT teams and departments for their IT implementations.

The total financial outflow for implementation of the cyber security policy for five years is Rs 103.87 crores, which would be met from the budgetary allocation of the IT department. Out of this, Rs 23.74 crore would go towards providing incentives and concessions.

The policy focuses on several key areas such as awareness and education, skill building, promotion of industry and startups, partnerships and collaborations for capacity building.

Under the internship programme, a stipend of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month will be provided, for maximum of three months, to Karnataka-based undergraduate and postgraduate interns. The target is to facilitate 600 undergraduate interns and 120 postgraduate interns during the policy period.For research and development (R&D) projects in the domain of cybersecurity, driven by Karnataka-based startups in collaboration with Karnataka-based academic institutes, matching grant of up to a maximum of 50% of the total project R&D cost, or up to Rs. 50 lakhs will be provided.

Reimbursement of the cost up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh towards engagement of Karnataka-based, CERT-In empanelled service providers by startups registered with Karnataka Startup Cell for cyber security audit will be provided.

To oversee the implementation of the policy, a high-powered Cyber Security Committee has been constituted headed by the additional chief secretary to government, government of Karnataka with secretary, DPAR (e-Gov) as the member secretary. A Chief information security officer will be nominated at the State level and information security officers will be nominated by all the government departments.

“The policy aims to quickly respond to security threats, protect critical information, reduce supply chain risks, and develop human resources,” State Electronics and IT/BT minister Priyank Kharge said.

To address the growing demand for cybersecurity professionals, the State has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cisco to train 40,000 individuals in cybersecurity skills and awareness.

The programme aims to have 50% female participants.