India Witnessed – Touting India as its launch pad, a Google executive said the company has introduced several products and features in India before rolling them out to the rest of the world.
The tech giant has launched a series of pan-India initiatives and programs to bolster online security and combat online fraud. Google India also announced a $2Mn grant to strengthen support channels and expand digital literacy initiatives for vulnerable communities.
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India Witnessed 18 Mn Cyberattacks
India saw 18 Mn cyberattacks and 2 Lakh threats per day in the first quarter of 2022, reportedly said Google VP of privacy, security and safety engineering Royal Hansen while addressing the Safer with Google on Thursday Aug 25.
In a way, it has reached a level of activity where it’s not a question of whether someone will be attacked, but how they will be prepared, Hansen was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.
Touting India as its launch pad, Hansen said that Google has introduced several products and features in India before rolling them out to the rest of the world. (India Witnessed)
He added that the company would continue to do this in the context of cybersecurity, privacy and security, as India is a great example of a growing dynamic and thriving online ecosystem, according to the report.
The second edition of the event, held in New Delhi, was attended by government officials, Digital India Corporation MD Abhishek Singh, Google India Country Head Sanjay Gupta, Google Asia Pacific Head of Trust and Security Saikat Mitra , among others.
Cyber security
Calling cyber security one of the top issues for the world, the tech giant launched a series of pan-India initiatives and programs at the event to bolster online security and combat online fraud. (India Witnessed)
Hansen was also quoted as saying that the company enrolled 150 million accounts for two-step verification or multi factor authentication in 2021.
Apart from this, Google will also collaborate with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Digital India and a large number of banks and telecommunication companies to make users aware of digital fraud.
The tech giant has also launched a website in three languages Bengali, Hindi and Tamil to protect children from online sexual abuse.
India is one of the biggest markets for Google. The tech giant accounted for 94% of searches coming from India in July 2022, while YouTube had a user base of almost 459.23 million users in India last year. (India Witnessed)
As local threat vectors evolve, our focus is to strengthen our defenses against them, through security enhancements to our products, adapting our policies to prevent misuse of our platforms and identify and eliminate threats at the root, said Mitra.
Google India Marketing VP Sapna Chadha also said the company would raise more awareness to make the internet more inclusive of women, older people, language users and LGBTQIA+ communities. (India Witnessed)
As part of this, Google announced a $2Mn grant for nonprofits to strengthen support channels and expand the digital security skills of vulnerable communities. The grant will also enable organizations to create content in regional languages and pilot new outreach channels.
In addition, Google will also hold a cyber skills roadshow in various cities to enhance the skills of about 1 Lakh developers and founders to create more secure applications and integrate security tools at all stages of development.
