LAUSR

SECURING CYBERSPACE TODAY involves in-depth defense, which in turn requires taking a multilayered view of the systems in play. All layers must be secured, from the hardware processor and platform to the peripherals, firmware, operating system, network, protocols, crypto-algorithms, applications, services and microservices, APIs, virtualization, and cloud distribution. Cybersecurity also involves threat modeling; vulnerability assessment; risk analysis; and risk-driven, best-effort security controls. Further, based on the use of computing and networking, we have information-technology (IT) and operationaltechnology (OT) systems at various industrial-control and critical-infrastructure systems. In India, several academic institutes have chartered course work in cryptography and security. The earliest steps trace back to the launch of the Cryptology Research Society of India (CRSI)14 by multiple academic institutes, such as the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) Chennai, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras/Kanpur/Kharagpur. To extend the theoretical foundations of cryptology to information security and cybersecurity, special initiatives were taken by various academic partners. ISI Kolkata has been one of the forerunners in paving the path of academic research in the world of cryptography, focusing on varied areas, including symmetric key cryptography and various research topics in the domain of cryptology and security.32 IIT Kharagpur developed expertise in a state-of-the-art research laboratory called Secured Embedded Architecture Laboratory (SEAL), focusing on hardware security.38 IIT Kanpur, along with partners at IIT Kharagpur, IIIT Allahabad (IIITA), and IISc, runs a technology innovation hub (TIH)6 for cyber-physical systems (CPS) security, where IIT Kanpur mainly focuses on industrial control system (ICS)/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) security while IIT Kharagpur focuses on hardware security, Trojan detection, and automotive security.39 IIT Kanpur is also involved in the security of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). IIITA focuses on IoT security, while IISc focuses on multiparty computation. IIT Madras has a leading research group in foundational aspects of cybersecurity,13 and IIT Bombay, which fosters a strong group in theoretical cryptography, has also made pioneering contributions in secure computation, specifically in the domain of secure multiparty computations. This article looks at some of the major research accomplishments resulting from these efforts. Further, we discuss significant government initiatives that have helped to develop India’s discourse around cryptology and research.