Centre launches ‘hackathon’ to identify ideas, solutions to tackle cyber threats

The Centre on Thursday launched a national-level 'hackathon' to identify innovative ideas and technological solutions for addressing cyber security challenges and cybercrimes in the country.

The Centre on Thursday launched a national-level 'hackathon' to identify innovative ideas and technological solutions for addressing cyber security challenges and cybercrimes in the country.

“The number of cybercrime applications that come to us is huge and those getting converted into FIR are very less. To fill this gap, we are planning to have a cyber cell in each police station. By giving internal training, we would upgrade the skill of our staff to tackle such cases more efficiently,” Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe said on Friday. (Image for representation)

According to officials, youngsters from educational institutions across the country and registered start-ups will participate in the "KAVACH 2023" hackathon to find robust, secure and effective technological solutions for cyber security using their technical expertise and innovative skills.

"It will advance the blockage of cyber security crimes with a robust system monitoring and safety provisions," said Balaji Srivastava, Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).

KAVACH 2023 is a unique national hackathon jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell, AICTE, Bureau of Police Research and Development, and the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (Ministry of Home Affairs) to identify innovative ideas and technological solutions for challenges faced by law enforcement agencies and common citizens, he said.

Abhay Jere, Vice-Chairman of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), said KAVACH-2023 will be conducted in two phases.

"In the first phase, the problem statements, grouped into various buckets such as fake news, social media, dark web, women safety, phishing detection, video analytics and CCTV, obscene content detection, spam alert, malware analysis and digital forensics, shall be posed to the public.

"Willing participants are expected to develop digital solutions for the statements using robust technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, augmented reality and virtual reality, and submit their concepts on the portal of Kavach-2023," he added.

The grand finale of the hackathon, scheduled from July 12-14, will be a 36-hour-long event during which selected youths will participate to find robust, secure and effective technological solutions.

"Total prize money worth ₹20 lakh will be awarded to the winning teams," said Rajesh Kumar, CEO of Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

The participants can submit their ideas between March 1 to April 15, following which they will be evaluated till May 15.

The batches of finalists will be announced between May 16 and 31, following which they will undergo a month-long training.