National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has announced its partnership with Data Security Council of India (DSCI) and Symantec to launch a new cybersecurity courseware in the country. The new courseware brings ten cybersecurity job roles under National Occupational Standards.
In addition to the new courseware, Nasscom has also launched Qualification Packs (QP) for organisations in IT/ITeS, Financial and Consultancy Advisory fields.
“This initiative has a two-pronged approach — it contributes to containing the spurt of cybercrime and also enhances the employability of the workforce,” said R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, in a statement.
Specifically to provide cybersecurity skills training and certification to women professionals in India, security software company Symantec has additionally instituted scholarships to 1,000 women undertaking the cybersecurity certification by SCC Nasscom.
“Building the next generation of cyber professionals is key to securing India’s critical information infrastructure, battling cybercrime and making the ‘Digital India’ initiative successful,” said Sanjay Rohatgi, SVP — Asia-Pacific and Japan, Symantec. “Leading on from our commitment in 2015, we continue to work closely with Nasscom to build a cadre of world-class, skilled and certified cybersecurity professionals in India, with a special focus on youth and women.”
Last year, Nasscom had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some other organisations to launch Cyber Security Skill Development Initiative.
Protection for open source solutions
While the new courseware is considered to be helpful for all sectors, the open source area would get majorly uplifted through the new development.
Speaking to the Open Source For You on the sidelines of the courseware launch in New Delhi, Mr Chandrashekhar revealed that security threats in the open source area are also be covered in the new initiative.
“We should ensure that security threats in the open source area are also covered in the training programme. Because for some time there was a perception that this is only a problem of proprietary software but experience has shown that the problem is very much there for open source,” he said.
Aims to create new jobs for Indians
Cybersecurity is one of the hot topics all across the globe. It already affected millions of users worldwide. But for India, it has emerged as a major job-creation avenue.
“With the IT sector on track to reach $350 billion by 2025, we estimate 10 per cent of this to be cybersecurity,” Nasscom Chair Cyber Security Task Force Rajendra Pawar mentioned while discussing the growth of the new courseware.
The ten new qualification packs will be provided through leading institutions in India in the coming future. Furthermore, companies such as Capgemini, HCL, KPMG and Symantec will consider the newly constructed job roles to develop better cybersecurity solutions.
