New Delhi [India], June 11 The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has launched a special cybersecurity training programme to create 5,000 cyber commandos aimed at enhancing the cyber capabilities of the force personnel, enabling them to effectively tackle emerging digital threats and challenges in the future.
The advanced course was commenced on June 8 at IIT Madras Pravartak in Chennai and will continue for the next six weeks. The first batch of 35 CISF personnel is participating in this training programme.
During the six-week course, the CISF said, "the participants will receive intensive training in critical areas such as network and cloud computing, digital forensics, cyber threat identification, artificial intelligence, machine learning, incident response, and legal frameworks."
"The primary objective of the programme is to enhance the cyber capabilities of CISF personnel, enabling them to effectively tackle emerging digital threats and challenges in the future," said the Central Armed Police Force (CISF) in a statement.
The CISF said it has been consistently working towards enhancing the technological capabilities of its personnel and actively contributing to the nationwide capacity-building initiative of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
To achieve this objective, CISF has established a robust training ecosystem. As a result, more than 1,600 personnel of the force have already undergone Cyber Security and Cyber Commando training programmes at prestigious institutions such as the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), Delhi and Gandhinagar, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), Pune, and the National Police Academy (NPA), Hyderabad.
The CISF is also taking steps towards empanelment with CERT-In as an Information Security Auditing Organisation.
To support this initiative, personnel are being trained through information security and ISO/IEC 27001 certification programmes, enabling the force to develop in-house capabilities in cyber security auditing, compliance, and risk management.
As a modern and future-ready force, the CISF is entrusted with the responsibility of securing some of the nation's most sensitive and critical assets. These include airports, nuclear power plants, ports, metro networks, and government buildings.
As the distinction between physical security and cyber security continues to narrow, the CISF said, it is continuously upgrading its capabilities to safeguard these critical infrastructures against all forms of cyber threats and attacks.
The CISF is one of the country's premier forces that has been providing security and fire consultancy services to both government and private sector organisations.
The force has delivered security consultancy for several major and prestigious projects, including the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, business parks in Mumbai and Pune, IIM Indore, BHU, and the Delhi Police headquarters.
With the acquisition of these certified cybersecurity capabilities, the CISF said it is now emerging as a complete security provider.
In the near future, the CISF added that it will also begin offering cybersecurity consultancy services to both government and private sector organisations.