Coimbatore : Lucideus Technologies, an IT risk assessment and digital security services provider, is setting up a cyber war room at Bannariamman Institute of Technology (BIT), at Sathyamangalam in nearby Erode district, for grooming students to combat increasing cyber crime, according a top company official.

The war room, the first of its kind in the country, would be launched by the next academic year and students would get trained in activities like simulations, by bringing Israel technology in cyber crime, Lucideus co-founder and CEO Saket Modi told reporters here.

Modalities like investment and equipment and gadgets were being worked out, he said.

Modi, here to address an awareness session on secured digital India, presented an overview of the overall cyber security of government departments, private sector and academia. He said 80 per cent of technologies had become obsolete in the last two decades.

On how cyber criminals could hack into the most cutting-edge technology devices like smartphones, laptops, he said the recent cyber crime at Pune-based Cosmos Bank on August 11 in which Rs 70 crore was withdrawn from
15,000 transactions across 28 countries, showed the scale, size and precision of cyber attacks and the need to protect ourselves.

Every company and individual has a risk of being affected by cyber crime and it is imperative to be aware, prepared and secure. SAFE Lucideus, available on Play Store, gave a safety rating. Coimbatore Range DIG G Karthikeyan said 12,317 incidents of cyber crime were reported in the country in 2016.

This resulted in the public and private sector spending increasingly on cyber security.

City Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan said the country had 465 million internet users in 2017 and cyber security needed adequate importance.

Lucideus vice-president Rahul Tyagi gave a live demonstration on hacking into a mobile phone in less than a few minutes and also hacking of a laptop and the security camera at an airport. Currently the country had over 50,000 professionals and it was estimated that it would need 1 million cyber security professionals by 2020.

Institute chairman SV Balasubramaniam said around 1,000 students were already undergoing training, with Lucideus being the knowledge partner for the certificate progamme in cyber security. The vision was to make BIT a hub for cyber security resources in South India.