T’puram: State govt on Monday organised a state-level consultative workshop on Strengthening Cyber Security Frameworks for State Data in Thiruvananthapuram to discuss strategies for enhancing cyber resilience and protecting govt data assets amid rising cyber threats.The workshop was inaugurated by industries and information technology minister P K Kunhalikutty and organised by Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) in collaboration with National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY). It forms part of a nationwide initiative aimed at strengthening cybersecurity governance and improving the cyber preparedness of states and Union Territories.The programme assumes significance in the context of Kerala’s expanding digital governance ecosystem and the growing incidence of ransomware attacks, data breaches, phishing campaigns and threats to critical digital infrastructure.Senior govt officials, chief information security officers (CISOs), cybersecurity practitioners, industry representatives and academicians participated in the workshop. Officials from govt departments, public sector undertakings, boards, corporations and autonomous institutions also attended the event.Deliberations focused on risk-based cybersecurity assessments, securing state data centres, strengthening incident response mechanisms, cybersecurity best practices and the role of CISOs in governance. Participants reviewed Kerala’s cybersecurity landscape and identified gaps in governance, technology, processes and institutional capabilities.Technical sessions covered cybersecurity governance, national cybersecurity ecosystem, security operations centres (SOC), secure application development, cyber crisis management lans, threat intelligence, continuous monitoring and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and zero trust architecture.Recommendations emerging from the workshop will be consolidated and submitted to MeitY as part of the national consultative process to help build a secure and resilient digital ecosystem in Kerala.
