‘Cyber resilience is even more critical now’

Prioritising the development of a cyber-resilient workforce is nothing short of critical for organisations, says Samir Kumar Mishra, director, Security Business, Cisco India & Saarc, as he talks to Sudhir Chowdhary about his firm’s skill building efforts in the country. Excerpts:

How critical is it for firms to prioritise building a cyber-resilient workforce?

What are the key challenges organisations face when preparing their workforce to defend against cyber threats?

A recent Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index report highlights that only 24% of Indian companies are adequately prepared to defend against cyber threats, while a significant 90% anticipate cybersecurity incidents disrupting their businesses in the next 12 to 24 months. Understanding the security risks associated with hybrid work settings is crucial for organisations to implement the necessary security policies and technologies effectively. To bridge the security readiness gap, businesses must protect identity, devices, networks, application workloads, and data using a combination of specialised tools and integrated platforms, simplifying security while enhancing resilience.

How are you contributing to prepare a skilled workforce in India?

We aim to equip India’s students with the career-ready technical skills required to meet the ever-growing security needs of tomorrow. Building on Cisco Networking Academy’s efforts, we have committed to train 500,000 people with cybersecurity skills over the next three years. Under our India Cash Grant programme, we have partnered with NIIT Foundation to launch the CyberSuraksha programme to train one million underprivileged individuals in cybersecurity by 2025 (with 100,000 trained so far).