Cyber resilience for all: How Cisco and NIIT Foundation are securing India's digital future

[ad_1] As India undergoes speedy digital transformation, the alternatives are immense — however so are the dangers. Cybercrime losses exceeded ₹1,750 crore within the first 4 months of 2024 alone. [1] Whereas India requires no less than a million cybersecurity professionals, its present workforce is lower than half that quantity. [2] This makes it paramount not solely to equip residents with information on how you can keep secure on-line, but in addition to coach the cybersecurity workforce India urgently wants.

That is the problem that sits on the coronary heart of the partnership between Cisco and the NIIT Basis, an India-based nonprofit centered on training and ability improvement that helped us positively influence 50 million folks in India. Since 2008, Cisco and NIIT Basis have partnered on initiatives that bridge the digital divide, together with varied coaching applications for India’s youth. Constructing on this robust basis, in 2022, we launched a flagship initiative: Cyber Suraksha.

A multipronged method to cyber security Aligned with Cisco’s technique to leverage expertise and partnerships to deal with important wants in training and financial improvement, the Cyber Suraksha program goals to construct widespread information on cyber security whereas coaching younger folks for cybersecurity careers. This system — designed as a complete response to India’s escalating cybersecurity challenges — is structured round three key programs:

Cyber Consciousness: A 20-hour foundational program for ages 13+ protecting private on-line security and safety towards cyber threats like identification theft, cyber-bullying, and fraud. Cyber Sensible: A complicated course for school college students interested by cybersecurity and getting ready for careers within the area. Cyber Workforce: A complete, employability-focused program designed to coach people for roles within the cybersecurity business.

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="lazy lazy-hidden wp-image-480613" data-lazy-type="image" src="https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_2-edited-300x199.jpeg" alt="A man speaks into a microphone to a large group of women seated on the floor, with a "Cyber Suraksha Plus" banner in the background." width="395" height="262" srcset="" sizes="auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px"/><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-480613" src="https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_2-edited-300x199.jpeg" alt="A man speaks into a microphone to a large group of women seated on the floor, with a "Cyber Suraksha Plus" banner in the background." width="395" height="262" srcset="https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_2-edited-300x199.jpeg 300w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_2-edited-1024x681.jpeg 1024w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_2-edited-768x511.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_2-edited.jpeg 1280w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px"/> The Cyber Suraksha program engages communities to construct a safer digital world for all. Cyber Suraksha’s influence by the numbers Over a three-year grant interval (2022–2025), Cyber Suraksha pursued an bold imaginative and prescient: coaching a million people throughout India in cybersecurity abilities and consciousness. By March 2025, this system had surpassed that purpose throughout its three programs, demonstrating the curriculum’s effectiveness and the widespread demand for accessible digital security coaching.

This system’s influence has been each wide-reaching and inclusive, spanning communities usually left behind in tech training. With greater than 40% feminine participation, this system helps to reshape a area the place girls are sometimes underrepresented globally. Moreover, individuals who discovered employment after finishing this system noticed their household incomes rise by a median of 39% over a three-year interval, highlighting how digital abilities and cybersecurity coaching can straight contribute to financial mobility.

Actual lives, actual influence: Tales from the Cyber Suraksha program Whereas the statistics inform a strong story of scale, the true influence of Cyber Suraksha is finest understood by means of the lives it has reworked. Rehana, a 31-year-old trans girl and neighborhood advocate from New Delhi, observed that her neighborhood was notably inclined to cyber threats because of a lack of information. “The Cyber Suraksha initiative empowered me to acknowledge and reply to cyber threats,” she defined. “I developed important cybersecurity abilities by means of mentorship and sensible expertise.” At the moment, she’s obsessed with elevating cyber consciousness and works to assist her neighborhood defend themselves on-line.

Private experiences with cyber fraud motivated each Apurba, a 25-year-old pc utility graduate from rural West Bengal, and Anand, a 50-year-old yoga instructor from Delhi, to enroll in Cyber Suraksha. Each had been focused by on-line scams, from unauthorized financial institution transactions to e-mail breaches. “The programs supplied me with superior abilities and a robust theoretical basis,” Apurba shared, crediting this system with getting ready him for his profession. For Anand, the coaching supplied one thing equally priceless: “The Cyber Suraksha program drastically enhanced my understanding of fraud techniques and how you can forestall them.” At the moment, Apurba works in cybersecurity whereas Anand actively raises consciousness about cyber security in his neighborhood.

The partnerships advancing cybersecurity in India Cyber Suraksha’s success displays the energy of the partnership between Cisco and NIIT Basis. Collectively, we’ve reached underserved populations — from rural youth to older adults — equipping them with abilities that open pathways to sustainable livelihoods.

Reaching this scale required partnerships at each stage: greater than 500 faculties, 129 NGOs, and three,000+ authorities colleges throughout 27 states and 5 union territories supplied grassroots entry and native perception. Know-how platforms for challenge administration, influence monitoring, and AI-driven studying enabled this system to adapt rapidly and personalize content material. NIIT Basis’s neighborhood networks mixed with Cisco’s expertise infrastructure created a depth of influence that neither of us may have achieved alone.

Trying forward towards a digitally resilient future <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="lazy lazy-hidden wp-image-480611" data-lazy-type="image" src="https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited-300x200.jpg" alt="An instructor, standing at the front of a classroom full of students, points to a screen that says, "How strong is your password?" as part of a lesson on cybersecurity." width="416" height="278" srcset="" sizes="auto, (max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px"/><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-480611" src="https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited-300x200.jpg" alt="An instructor, standing at the front of a classroom full of students, points to a screen that says, "How strong is your password?" as part of a lesson on cybersecurity." width="416" height="278" srcset="https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited-300x200.jpg 300w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited-768x512.jpg 768w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.cisco.com/gcs/ciscoblogs/1/2025/10/NIIT-blog_1-edited.jpg 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px"/> Program individuals study that on-line security begins with robust passwords and safe accounts. The journey doesn’t finish right here. Constructing on Cyber Suraksha’s success, Cisco and NIIT Basis are launching Cyber Suraksha Plus to succeed in an extra 2.7 million folks over the following three years. The initiative will preserve its deal with reaching all learners, aiming for 40% feminine participation, and can increase into synthetic intelligence coaching alongside cybersecurity.

Via a number of supply channels — instructor-led classes, train-the-trainer fashions, and self-paced platforms just like the Study@NIITFoundation app — this system will lengthen its attain into much more distant areas and susceptible communities. Strengthened partnerships with authorities establishments, faculties, and grassroots organizations will allow sustainable, cost-effective supply at scale.

The tales of Rehana, Apurba, Anand, and a million others show what’s potential when expertise, training, and partnership come collectively. As Cisco and NIIT Basis proceed this work, we’re not simply constructing cybersecurity abilities — we’re creating pathways to alternative and contributing to a safer digital future for all of India.