Soon, centre of excellence on cyber security

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-government will set up a centre of excellence on cyber security in the state to successfully confront cyber crimes. The state Cabinet has already given its nod for setting up such a centre.

"The state Information Technology department will conduct a week-long workshop where talks will be held with Kolkata Police and some knowledge partners to imbibe the best practices of cyber security in the proposed Centre of Excellence. The nodal partner for the venture will be Indian Institute of Information Technology based at Kalyani," principal secretary, state Information Technology Debashis Sen said at an event organised on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics organised by Assocham on Friday.

The state government will involve more than one knowledge partner in the venture like PWC, KPMG and Nasscom. "This will ensure a proper futuristic growth in the IT sector by overcoming the challenges of cyber security and threat that is bound to increase with embracing of technology," Sen said. The Centre of Excellence will come up at Salt Lake Sector V or at New Town. The centre will have experts equipped with the best and most sophisticated instruments.

The cyber security centre will collect, analyse and disseminate information on cyber security incidents, execute emergency measures, co-ordinate response and issue guidelines, advisories and vulnerability notes. The centre of excellence will act as a monitoring authority for the state, which would look at every single incident and incorporate the information for research and development.

Bengal is the an emerging destination for information technology for the last six years that has recently received a big boost with IT major Infosys saying a yes to invest Rs 100 crore in the state and set up a 50-acre campus in Rajarhat area with an employment potential of 1,000.

Infosys has long been demanding Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status to mark its maiden entry in the state. The company was given 50 acre land at Rajarhat by the previous Left Front government in 2010. However, it was going slow on the project as the Trinamool

Congress government under Mamata Banerjee had clarified that the company will not get the SEZ status, as promised to them by the previous government.

According to sources, the state government has

now decided to offer fiscal benefits to Infosys in lieu of SEZ status.

Interestingly, in March this year, some offices of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL) had come under attack by the crippling global ransomware Wannacry, designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.

When the employees tried to access the data stored in the computers, a note flashed on the screen that access will only be available after a ransom of $300 is paid. The note also mentioned the payment can be made through the Bitcoin gateway, where an account number was also mentioned.