IT security firms need to work more closely with government: Gulshan Rai

NEW DELHI: National Cyber Security Coordinator Gulshan Rai today asked all parties affected by cyber threats -- especially security software makers -- to work closely with the government in identifying the malicious system to build resilience.

"While acknowledging the co-operation from stakeholders, particularly security companies, I think we need to work closely. These companies need to work with the government or may be any organisation in the government," Rai said at the Assocham-Kaspersky Cyber Resilience Summit.

He also spoke of cyber security companies hesitating in sharing some types of data with a central body.

"They may not share data in public, but for certain data that are offending IPs (computer address) or malicious IPs, you must share (it) with the central organisation so that the country at large can benefit and ecosystem can be protected," Rai said.

He added that every company in cyber security domain has set up transparency centres that might help them and their client, but not for society or the nation at large.

"We need a consolidated transparency centre at the national level where all the things can be looked at together simultaneously lawfully," Rai suggested.

The national cyber security coordinator termed machine learning and artificial intelligence as "a double-edged technology" which not just helps in identifying the background processes, but provides hackers with information to breach the system.