Karnataka Government Signs MoU with Dell Technologies to Impart Cyber Safety Practices

The Government of Karnataka and Dell Technologies have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday. The IT firm has collaborated with the state’s Cyber Centre of Excellence (CySecK) to improve current online security practices. 

The MoU was signed in the presence of Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan and vice-president Manish Gupta, Dell Technologies, along with Ripu Bajwa, director sales and general manager–Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies.

According to the agreement, Dell Technologies, through its ‘Tech for Social Good’ initiative, will roll out interactive courses on cyber hygiene best practices for school students. These courses are also expected to be curated for small- and medium-scale enterprises as well as for government functionaries.

“To achieve the target of becoming a $300 billion digital economy by 2025, putting in place an efficient cyber security system is necessary,” said C N Ashwath Narayan. He further added that the agreement would facilitate cyber security awareness and practices in student circles, startups and public offices, and would also benefit both small- and medium-scale enterprises. 

Karthik Rao Bappanad, Centre Head, CySecK, said that the centre is working on expanding the cyber security practices to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. He emphasised that considering the government’s vision for Karnataka to have a 300 billion digital economy by 2025, digitalisation would require a strong foundation of cybersecurity. 

Furthermore, under the MoU, Dell would provide learning of cyber safety practices through its interactive courses available in Kannada and English.

Several other projects have been established to accelerate the development of cybersecurity technologies in the country, such as the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), in partnership with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), launched the National Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity in Noida in 2020.