It is ironical that India has huge Internet population and is hub of software development, but is vulnerable to information security threats. India is ill-equipped to handle cyber attacks as there is acute shortage of skilled professionals. This was revealed by EC-Council, world leaders in cyber security certification and training.
EC Council’s report, Talent Crisis in Indian Information Security, which was unveiled today, showcases major gaps in present day skill situation concerning IT security, which can impact handling of cyber threats in industries such as banking, defence, healthcare, information, energy, and more.
As per EC Council report, an alarming 75 per cent of the participants showcased low levels or a lack of skill in Error Handling, thereby displaying vulnerability known to lead to the disclosure of sensitive information and denial of service attacks A startling 73 per cent of participants were not adequately equipped with skills in File Handling, leaving only 27 per cent trained with the skill. The report also pointed out that a meagre 28% participants understood the process of Authentication and Authorisation, a skill crucial to data protection and an essential skill needed by a programmer.
Prospective threats include credential theft, eavesdropping, brute-force, dictionary attack, data tampering, account hijacking, disclosure of confidential data among others.
The report of EC-Council was prepared with the help of more than 10,000 participants from over 100 colleges across India.
Speaking on this occasion, Sanjay Bavisi, President, EC-Council Foundation, said,” — what we need in an ever-evovling cyber security landscape is talent that responds sophisticated threats in a timely manner. To enable a task force set up, we need a talent pipeline that is trained to confidently fix the weak spots. Our initiatives in India are towards providing a identification and sustained development of talent in the field of Information Security.”
To fill the gap of paucity of skilled cyber security professionals, EC-Council, has also announced today the launch of iLabs in India, which is virtualized cyber security training platform providing round the clock acccess to cyber learning materials, a virtual private cloud for every student, which is available to students based anywhere in the country with just a simple access to the internet.
iLabs is a range of preconfigured virtual machines, which will allow students to get practical, hands-on experience in the concepts and methodologies taught in EC-Councils’s IT Security Certification courses. These courses has duration of 2 days to 5 days and can be undertaken from the confines of your homes or visiting the learning centres. These courses are not expensive to pursue and depending upon the streams, the fee structure varies from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 35,000.
Speaking at the launch of iLabs in New Delhi, Jay Bavisi, President, EC-Council, said,” India needs to gear up against the cyber plague every single day and one of the best ways is through secure coding and hacking education. Preparing the next generation is perhaps the best step towards achieving our goal. iLabs is one such platform that will get students and professionals to address and solve vulnerabilites in cyber security skills. With immediate effect, this programme will be available with all our partners across India.”
