The Karnataka government will soon release a state-wide cybersecurity policy, Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan announced on October 5. He cited increased digitisation of government operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for improving cybersecurity within the government. Evolving a state cybersecurity policy was one of the goals of the IT Policy (2020-2025) that the state government had released on September 7. “The new cybersecurity policy would be framed to address the needs of the citizens, industry, students as well as the state government,” he said as per comments translated by the News Minute. Citing Bengaluru’s position as India’s IT hub, he said that the city is a natural favourite of cyber criminals, thus creating a need for government organisations and employees to be more cyber aware. Ashwathnarayan’s announcement comes a few weeks after Tamil Nadu released its own cybersecurity policy. The deputy chief minister, who is also the state’s IT minister, was inaugurating October as the cybersecurity awareness month at an event organised by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) within the state's Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology. At a national level too, the National Cyber Security Strategy is expected this month, National Cyber Security Coordinator Lt Gen. (Dr) Rajesh Pant had said in September. In May, the government had established H.A.C.K., a cybersecurity accelerator, that would be housed within the IISc. It is reportedly the first such accelerator for cybersecurity start-ups. Karnataka reported highest…
