Security News > 2007 > March > First Regional Cyber Security & Research Center Opens at Chandigarh

http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=9064 IT News Online Staff 2007-03-20 NASSCOM, the premier trade body and "voice" of the IT software and services industry, in association with Chandigarh Administration has opened the Regional Cyber Security and Research Center (RCSRC) at Chandigarh. NASSCOM will serve as a technical consultant for this initiative while the funding will be jointly provided by the Department of Information Technology and the Chandigarh Administration through Society for Promotion of Information Technology (SPIC), Chandigarh. RCSRC is the first cyber security research center in the country that will engage a multidisciplinary team of researchers and faculty to conduct specialist research in the areas of information and cyber security and performance optimization in Networking in a cost effective manner. The team will conduct studies and organize discussion platforms to educate and enable the students to prevent and handle the new age transgressions. The research work undertaken and data collected here will also serve as primary source of information for the entire cyber security focused research community. Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM, said, "Information security has been a key focus area for the Indian IT industry. NASSCOM in association with various stakeholders like the union government, state administrations, academia, security professionals and the law enforcement has been taking steps that will ensure a strong security environment for Indian IT. We are very pleased to be associated with the inauguration of the Regional Cyber Security and Research Center, and are hopeful that this will further raise the bar for India being at the forefront in identifying possible concern areas and spearheading new methods to curtail any security loopholes." "Drawing on the strengths from Computer Science, Engineering and IT, the center will serve as a valuable regional and national asset for the development of advanced security solutions, critical infrastructure protection, emergency readiness and response technology consolidating India's position with respect to information security," added Karnik. General S.F. Rodrigues, Administrator, Chandigarh and Governor of Punjab, said, "Punjab with its encouraging policies is fast emerging as the most favored business and investment destination for IT and BPO companies. On this backdrop, it has become imperative for the Chandigarh administration to take the lead in research to create a technology rich environment conducive for constructive discussions and innovative ideas for further strengthening the security environment in the country." The initiative is backed by the Board of Mentors that include prominent names from the IT industry, academia, defense services and Chandigarh administration such as Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Principal Consultant, Information Security, TCS; Arun Seth, Chairman, British Telecom India; Dr. Bhaskaran Raman, Assistant Professor, IIT Kanpur; Professor Rudra Pratap, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Sciences-Bangalore; Nandkumar Saravade, Director Cyber Security and Compliance, NASSCOM; Dr. Prem Chand, Executive Director, Tech Mahindra; and Major General D.V. Kalra, Chief Signal Officer, HQ, Western Command, Chandimandir. RCSRC is a security research center setup at the Punjab Engineering College. The center's mission will be to encourage, promote, facilitate and execute interdisciplinary research in areas related to the nexus of the society and the digital world. The center will serve as a platform to: - Aid and advise organizations in cyber security policy enforcements, conduct of security audits and incident handling. - Provide consultancy to various IT organizations and police departments on the secure design networks including deployment of security administration software like intrusion detection, management software for vulnerability checking, protection against port scanners, password crackers, etc. - Educate and train manpower such as police, network users, IT professionals and network security specialists in the cyber security policies and related skills so it is integrated as a part of their jobs. - Facilitate research work for undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in the concerned areas. - Disseminate research results through journal and conference publications, technical reports and public domain software. - Create an online knowledge repository in the form of Web/FTP server consisting of information in the above mentioned areas. - Undertake projects with Government of India, NASSCOM, IT Industry in collaboration with academia. - Conduct interdisciplinary training programs for state departments, IT industry and academia. The primary focus of RCSRC is to conduct high quality research in the general areas of security and performance optimization in Networking, at affordable costs. The center will be a platform to provide defense against threats such as information warfare. It will carry out studies and hosts seminars that move society towards rational and informed discussion of these critical changes. The center's mission is to encourage, promote, facilitate and execute interdisciplinary research in areas related to the nexus of society and the Internet. The research work to be undertaken in the center and data collected here will benefit the entire research community. _________________________________________ Visit the InfoSec News Security Bookstore http://www.shopinfosecnews.org

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