Airtel Receives CERT-In Empanelment for Cybersecurity to Union, States

Bharti Airtel said it has received CERT-In empanelment. Incidentally, this allows the telco to offer its cybersecurity solutions to Union and State governments. What's more, under Airtel Secure, the company can also offer the same to Public Sector entities and corporate customers.

Airtel's New Milestone

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is the nodal agency within the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY). Basically, CERT-In deals with cybersecurity threats, working to safeguard India's internet domain.

As part of Airtel Secure, the telco has set up a state-of-the-art Security Intelligence Center. This center has access to advanced technology. It also uses AI/ML tools to track and reduce online threats.

On this occasion, Ajay Chitkara, Director & CEO - Airtel Business noted that the telco is “trusted by over one million enterprises of all sizes". Speaking of the empanelment, he noted that it is "a major milestone in our journey to becoming the preferred partner for enterprises when it comes to security". Furthermore, he said that security is a "top priority" in "today’s digitally connected world”.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco launched its security intelligence center with an investment of Rs. 100 Crores. To further develop and grow the business, the company entered into strategic partnerships. These partners include Cisco, VMware, Radware and Force point to expand advanced cyber security solutions. The telco now has endpoint protection, email protection, cloud DDOS protection and more due to these partnerships.

Furthermore, Airtel also signed a multi-year, Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This will allow the telco to offer a comprehensive set of innovative cloud solutions to large enterprise and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India.

Right Time for Cybersecurity

Airtel's push to expand its cybersecurity comes at an opportune time. Cyber attacks have become a serious threat to most organisations, both private and public. This is especially true for those companies that handle valuable customer data. Tech Research Asia recently reported that cybersecurity attacks impacted 52% organisations in India during the last 12 months.

With this move, Airtel, with Secure, can seek to secure a large chunk of cybersecurity business in the country. The topic still seems to be generally a new one to the masses and the telco is in prime position. It can target not only the B2B market with the empanelment, but can also seek out B2C customers as well.