In tandem with the increased focus on the recent cyber security concerns, a virtual roundtable meeting was held on September 1, 2021, on Indo US Cyber collaboration. Lately, government agencies have been concentrating on forming sound strategies to combat cyber security issues.

With around 1.16 million cyber-attack cases reported in India in 2020 alone, cyber security has since been a great concern for the nation. For the United States, the total number of data breaches stands at 1001 cases and around 155.8 million citizens victims of data exposure for the same year. As the digital economy ramps up for nations, cyber threats keep escalating.

Some of the key areas addressed in the meet included ransomware attacks, such as the recent case of Pegasus Revelation, cryptocurrency scams, and phishing.

“I am honored and humbled to have this unique opportunity of interacting with an official at the highest levels of the United States Government for Cyber/Emerging technology,” said Anne Neuberger, Deputy Assistant to the US President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber & Emerging Technology.

The discussion focused on the potential cooperation and collaboration between the Government of Telangana represented by Jayesh Ranjan, Hyderabad Security Cluster- represented by Zaki Qureshey, Nasscom and the Good offices of DNSA.

Zaki Qureshey, Director-General – Hyderabad Security Cluster, said “India has lost 12 billion dollars in cryptocurrency scams in the last four years but not a single prosecution has taken place.” Chinese betting app frauds are frequently registered in Hyderabad alone, he added.

“The Indian states do not have jurisdiction beyond India. This has become a problem for investigating agencies in today’s financial crimes.”

According to Qureshey, the challenge is to make the positive case for our approach, and then we’ve got to deliver and not highlight the challenges of techno-authoritarianism. To overcome this challenge, he suggests working with partners and allies to develop and deploy the technology. That’s where the potential cooperation and collaborations within the two nations (India and the USA), which have aligned interests, as well as cooperation and collaboration with global partners who are also similarly aligned, will matter.

He further states, “the Hyderabad Security Cluster is focused on tackling these threats because we want to ensure that the new emerging trends such as AI, 5G, cryptocurrency, Quantum Computing, networks, and related technologies are used for the transformative agencies they are in how we live, how we work, how we compete, how we defend ourselves.”

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