THE University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to all universities and colleges to give wide publicity among students and faculty to the Twitter handle @CyberDost – a cyber-safety and cybersecurity awareness handle maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) – with a view to strengthening cybersecurity and tackling the unforeseen challenges of cybercrime.
It also asked universities and colleges to arrange regular competitions, hackathons, workshops and seminars on cybersecurity/cybercrime.
The Commission has also sought action taken reports from institutions at the earliest.
The UGC letter follows a missive from the Ministry of Education asking the Commission to take appropriate action to create awareness about the government's cybersecurity portal.
The letter from the ministry had also asked that a "Handbook on Cyber Hygiene" be prepared in vernacular languages on cybersecurity, prevention of cybercrime, etc., for students.
In addition, it also asked that a common "cyber-safe" curriculum be prepared with an emphasis on "Hands-on-Training" at the graduate/postgraduate level in all streams in all colleges and universities, to enable the building of a cyber-safe environment in the country.
It also asked for the formulation of a "Baseline policy" with do's and don't in cybersecurity for the universities.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre(I4C), which comes under MHA, focuses on strengthening the capabilities of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. There is a special focus in the portal on cybercrime against women and children and it allows the de-centralized dealing of each complaint by the Law Enforcement Agencies of States/UTs.
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