We had the opportunity to participate in the Bharat National Cybersecurity Exercise (NCX) 2024 — a 12-day exercise to prepare India’s cybersecurity professionals to tackle evolving threats — last month.
This initiative was taken by the Indian government’s National Security Council Secretariat in partnership with Rashtriya Raksha University, Gujarat. The event was attended by over 300 participants representing government agencies, public organisations and the private sector. The exercise included immersive training in cyber defence and incident response and live cyber-attack simulations on IT and OT (operational technology) systems of the country’s critical critical infrastructure sectors.
I represented Zettawise Consulting, a Calcutta-based OT security start-up specialising in cybersecurity solutions for critical infrastructure protection. We were one of nine stalls at the Bharat Cybersecurity Startup Exhibition showcasing cutting-edge innovations. We were able to demonstrate a robust defence system through our cyber-range, a virtual environment for cybersecurity training, testing and research that simulates real-world computer networks and cyberattacks.
Vikas Chauhan, Yogesh Kumar and myself were on-site in New Delhi, interacting with seasoned security officers of top organisations. The rest of our teammates — Samkalpa Mukherjee (left in pic) , Parul Sharma and Amit Pandit — were in Calcutta, working with the cyber-range.
Many information security officers expressed interest in our work and listened to how we had rescued a hospital under attack from ransomware, a type of malware that blocked access to patient data. Cybercriminals had later falsely claimed that they were paid a ransom to unblock the system. In another instance, we were able to defend the network of a rural bank from cyber attacks.
Sumukh Kesarla,
Final year, BTech, Rashtriya Raksha University, Gujarat
