CSAI Cyber Security Centre for Research & Innovations- C3IR

CSAI Cyber Security Centre for Research & Innovations- C3IR

CSAI has approved proposal to establish C3IR in Social Communities and Educational Institutions (Schools, Colleges, Universities) 

The Need for C3IR 

· Cyber Security is the most prominent now a days in the Digital era. Most of young generation people and students carry lots of research in internet and are setting up start ups for innovative technologies and products. The youth are also involved in big bounty programs and also doing research on vulnerabilities in various systems/processes/sites. They are assisting Law Enforcement Agencies for ensuring National Security.

· There is need to channelise their energies for productive and cyber safe world. C3IR  is the CSAI CSR step in this direction.

· Cybersecurity is a fast-evolving field with new threats IoT, AI, clouds etc, demand constant innovation. Dedicated Centre fosters research into emerging technologies, threat detection, forensics, cryptography, etc.

· Academic-industry-Government collaboration can accelerate development of practical Security solutions and Universities can act as Innovation hubs.

· Research Centres contribute to National and Institutional resilience, policy-making, and capacity building

C3IR Vision

To be a leading academic and innovation hub that empowers students, researchers, and the wider community to build a secure, resilient, and trusted digital ecosystem through cutting-edge cybersecurity research, education, and collaboration.

C3IR Mission

1. Research Excellence: To conduct pioneering interdisciplinary research in Cybersecurity, threat intelligence, cryptography, forensics, privacy, and emerging domains such as IoT, AI, clouds etc.

2. Education & Training: To train students (K-12, undergrad, postgrad) and faculty via hands-on labs, workshops, simulations, and certifications, building a skilled Cybersecurity workforce.

3. Innovation & Collaboration: To foster partnerships with Industry, Government and other academic Institutions for translating Research into real-world Cyber solutions.

4. Policy & Governance: To contribute to policy-making, Security governance, and standards, advocating best practices.

5. Awareness & Culture: To raise Cybersecurity awareness in the campus and broader community, cultivating a culture of Digital responsibility.

6. Capacity Building & Outreach: To support capacity building initiatives such as cyber cells, incident response etc. within the Institution and partner organizations.

C3IR Objectives

1. Establish a Cyber-lab physical or virtual lab infrastructure for hands-on experiments such as penetration testing, forensics, red-team/blue-team.

2. Create curriculum-integrated modules/courses on Cybersecurity for various levels (school, college, university).

3. Support student-led research projects, hackathons, Capture the Flag (CTF) events.

4. Publish research in top Cybersecurity conferences/journals; file patents where applicable.

5. Develop cooperative research projects with industry such as threat intelligence sharing, product development etc.

6. Provide training/certification programmes for staff, students, and external stakeholders.

7. Organize workshops, seminars, and awareness campaigns including Cyber hygiene, phishing, social engineering etc.

8. Build a Cyber incident response team and cooperation with CERT-IN.

9. Engage in policy Research and recommend Security governance frameworks to institutional leadership.

10. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of training, research, and awareness activities via metrics (number of incidents reduced, number of students trained, research outputs, partnerships).

C3IR Infrastructure

The efforts would be to set up Cyber Research and Innovation Labs by way of:

Virtual labs- Cloud-based / container-based to simulate Cyberattacks and defensive scenarios. Virtual enhance active learning, especially for remote students.

Digital Labs: These will be based on available data and infra on open source without any specific investment in infra. These Digital labs will have data base of available facilities across all networks and stakeholders and will serve a ready Reckner for students/researchers for data, information, policies etc.

Physical Lab: Subject to interest of Institute and commitment of funds, to set up physical labs with isolated networks, virtualization, sandbox environments, servers.  This will also include investment in necessary tools: IDS/IPS, SIEM, forensic tools, malware analysis tools, simulation platforms.

Background

1.  Growing Cyber Threats in Education

· Educational Institutions hold large volumes of sensitive data — student personal info, financial data, research IP, administrative details — making them attractive targets.

· According to research, Universities and Schools face significant Cyber risks, including insider threats (e.g., malicious or careless insiders) and external attacks, ransomware etc,

·     Many Institutions under-invest in security due to budget constraints, lack of expertise, or lack of prioritized strategy.

2.  Skills Gap in Cybersecurity Workforce

· The demand for Cybersecurity professionals is growing rapidly, but Educational Institutions often lack adequate infrastructure, labs etc. and curriculum to train students effectively.

· Hands-on learning is essential in Cybersecurity; Cyber labs (safe environments, simulations) help students build real-world skills without risk to live systems.

· Integrating research and training in an academic centre helps convert research projects into student learning experiences and career pathways.

3.  Capacity Building & Awareness

· C3IR believes that Education sector is a prime place to build a culture of Security. C3IR will aim to promote Cybersecurity literacy among students, faculty, and staff.

· Training and workshops will help institutional risk management. This will include building incident response readiness, conducting simulated Cyberattacks, creating Cyber-Ambassador programs.

· C3IR will also help in policy analysis, contributing to institution-level and national Cyber policies.

4.  Educational Excellence & Reputation

C3IR dedicated Research and Innovation Centre will aim to raise the academic institution’s prestige and will also attract funding, research grants, partnerships with industry, and high-calibre students and faculty.

5.  Curriculum & Training Design

· Integrate Cybersecurity modules into existing curricula such as computer science, IT and also other disciplines.

· Develop specialized courses (undergraduate, postgraduate) or certificate programmes.

· Use project-based learning: embed research projects, CTFs, labs into coursework. This aligns with recommendations to integrate research and education.

· Organize regular workshops, seminars, and guest lectures by industry and government experts.
 

6.  Sustainable National / Institutional Strategy

· C3IR will align with National efforts for capacity-building programs for cybersecurity + AI in education.

· C3IR will contributes to building long-term infrastructure for Cyber resilience at National level.

7.  Partnerships & Collaboration

· Partner with Cybersecurity companies, National CERTs, government bodies, other universities.

· Formalize agreements, MOUs for joint R&D, internships, threat intelligence sharing etc.

8.  Research Focus

· C3IR will aim to identify priority research areas, based on risk assessment, institutional strengths, National needs.

· C3IR will aim to encourage faculty and students to publish, patent, and prototype solutions.

· C3IR will facilitate to apply for National and International grants for cybersecurity research.

9.  Awareness & Culture Building

· C3IR will launch a continuous awareness programme including phishing drills, cyber hygiene sessions etc.

· CSAI and C3IR already has a “Cyber Ambassador” programme: students who act as peer educators.

· C3IR will include policy forums or roundtables about security governance.
 

10.                   Incident Response Capability

· C3IR will aim to establish an internal cyber incident response team / CERT for the institution.

· C3IR will aim to develop and maintain an incident response plan: detection, response, recovery.

· C3IR will aim to regularly run simulations / drill such as phishing, ransomware to test readiness.

11.                    Scaling & Outreach 

· C3IR will encourage members, students to reach out to local schools: run awareness workshops, introduce cyber education early.

· C3IR will aim to host hackathons, symposiums, conferences to engage wider academic and practitioner community.

· C3IR will aim to help to explore commercialization of research output startups etc.

· C3IR will dedicate team to handle the regulatory / Compliance Issues, handling sensitive data, ensuring legal conformity. C3IR will aim to develop governance frameworks, align with data protection laws; involve legal / compliance teams.