Cyber security to be next big thing in IT, says Nasscom

The next big wave for the Indian information technology sector would be cyber security, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), said on Monday. The sector has projected revenues of $35 billion and a million new jobs, it said.

"We estimate that cyber security is about $2.5-3 billion or about two per cent of the close-to-$150-billion Indian IT sector. With the IT sector on track to reach $350 billion by 2025, we estimate 10 per cent of this to be cyber security," Nasscom chair, cyber security task force Rajendra Pawar said.

This would create an employment opportunity for about a million people as well, he added.

"Another important aspect will be start-ups. We expect to see about 1,000 start-ups coming up in this area. This is because these smaller companies are light-footed and yet have the best of technologies. Also, there has been a lot of investor interest in this area as enterprises look to stay secured against rising incidents of cyber-attacks," he said.

On Monday, Nasscom and the Data Security Council of India, with security software company Symantec, launched National Occupational Standards for 10 cyber security job roles. It also launched qualification packs developed in consultation with financial, consultancy advisory and IT services.

"This initiative has a two-pronged approach - it contributes to containing the spurt of cybercrime and also enhances the employability of the workforce. The launch of 10 QPs & the courseware for QP analyst - application security, is the collective effort of the industry and is going to be a landmark in empowering women while fighting a major issues such as cybercrime," said R Chandrashekhar, president, Nasscom.

Nasscom  had set up the task force last year, aimed at positioning India as a global hub for providing cybersecurity solutions, developing R&D plans and developing a skilled workforce. It had estimated the IT security market to be about $77 billion in 2015 and growing at over eight per cent annually, and demand for security workforce to rise globally to six million by 2019, up from 4 million in 2015, with projected shortfall of 1.5 million.

"Building the next generation of cyber professionals is key to securing India's critical information infrastructure, battling cybercrime and making the Digital India initiative successful," Chandrashekhar said.

To provide cyber security skills training and certification to women professionals, Symantec has also instituted scholarships to 1,000 women undertaking the cyber security certification by Nasscom.

Last year, the organisations had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support the launch of Cyber Security Skill Development Initiative.