February 2, 2020
In the era of entrepreneurship and startups, Awaaz, IIT Kharagpur sees it as its duty to share some of the successful startup stories related to IIT Kharagpur. Second in the series we present to you the story of CyberEye.
In this era of globalization, technology has made doing things easier than ever before, but it has also brought with it unforeseen challenges. The most critical challenge that has given countries, corporates, and even individuals sleepless nights is “Cyber Security”. But as some individual has said, “necessity brings with it solutions as well”. Around the globe, the field of cyber security has seen new individuals and organizations coming up to protect the cyber space and make the cyber world safer. In India, only a handful of such ventures have come up in the past. And today we have with us Mr. Ram Ganesh, the director of CyberEye, and Mr. Sundar Kumar, a core team member of CyberEye. CyberEye is an extremely promising Indian start-up in the arena of cyber security, which has touched new milestones and achieved unprecedented success in a very short span of time.
Q&A WITH CyberEye:
Awaaz: What is CyberEye? Can you give us a brief introduction about your organization for the better understanding of our readers?
CyberEye: We are an organization, consisting of alumni from premier institutions like IITs, IIM, IIITs, NITs, BITS; with an aim of creating world-class cyber security Professionals in India. We provide training to professionals, students, and trainers on cyber security and related verticals. We have built the world’s first end-to-end micro-level Adaptive Engine which empowers students, professionals, trainers, and organizations to rapidly build their capacities in cyber security.
Awaaz: Can you shed some light on the work that you have done, and some major milestones that you have achieved so far?
CyberEye: We have done some significant work in our short span in this field. Through Engineering Staff College of India(ESCI), we have been training professionals from ISRO, DRDO, CBI, NIA, CFSL, BPR&D, PSUs etc., we also trained students from IITs, NITs, IIITs, BITS and other premier colleges in collaboration with C R Rao AIMSCS. Through a subcontract with Ernst & Young (EY), we have been training students in Bangladesh. In association with NASSCOM, we have developed academic curriculum for Security Analyst job role that is adopted across various universities and autonomous institutions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. we also trained professors and master trainers from these institutions in collaboration with NASSCOM, APSSDC and JNTU Hyderabad. We are a SIG member of NASSCOM, a member of DSCI and also part of the cyber security Task Force setup by NASSCOM and DSCI.
Awaaz: What is the vision of CyberEye in the long run?
CyberEye: In the long run, we want to develop India as a cyber security hub because we have the human capital here in India capable of realizing this dream. The only thing needed is the right platform and guidance, which we are providing.
Awaaz: How vulnerable, do you think, is India today to the malice of cyber threat, in general, and Indian government organizations, in particular, considering the fact that its top-level government officers use their personal gmail account to transfer highly secret, sensitive files?
CyberEye: Cyber threat is one of the major challenges of our times; India is no exception, the whole world is facing the same. In India, the situation has improved, now we are more aware of this. Many things have been done, but many more things need to be done. Regarding the Indian government, we have trained officers in ISRO, DRDO, CBI, NIA on this.
Awaaz: Recently in IIT Kharagpur, Mathematics and Computing Department’s website was hacked, and it’s not just one-off incident, in the past also a couple of such incidents have taken place, and the frequency of such incidents has increased. What’s your take on it?
CyberEye: It’s definitely a bad sign, and action should be initiated to revamp the situation.
Awaaz: Are you currently providing your services to IIT Kharagpur? And if not, do you wish to provide your services to our institute in the future?
CyberEye: No, at present we are not providing any service to your institute, but, surely, in the future, we would like to associate with your institute.
Awaaz: Would you like to make any comment on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Start Up India Campaign”, considering that today a lot of youth in India aspire to become entrepreneurs?
CyberEye: It’s a laudable move by PM Narendra Modi. It will surely facilitate the start-up culture in India. It will also encourage venture capitalists to invest in the start-ups.
Awaaz: Finally, what would be your message to those who wish to make their careers in the field of cyber security?
CyberEye: Anyone who wants to join this field should have a passion for it, and they should be inspired by the challenges of this field, rather than by money and fame because “good hackers are known to the world but great hackers are not”.