India will continue to be our launchpad, says Google

Many of Google’s products and features were first made available in India. Prior to the second annual Safer With Google event, which will take place on Thursday in New Delhi, Royal Hansen, the company’s vice president of engineering for privacy, safety, and security, made this statement. He claimed that as long as India is a member, the business would continue to prioritise security, privacy, and safety “a wonderful illustration of an evolving, healthy, and expanding online ecosystem.

According to Hansen, India is particularly significant because 30% of all transactions will be digital by 2021. India will thereafter be the nation with the most digital transactions worldwide as a result. On the other side, a robust method of cyberattack protection is required.

This makes it crucial for Google to carry out its duties and make security the default, make information private by design, and maintain the safety of individuals and organisations during all of these changes, he said.

“In India, the numbers are enormous. There were 200,000 threats each day and 18 million cyberattacks in the first three months of 2022. It’s now more a question of how well-prepared a person or organisation is than if they will be attacked.”

Google started a massive, multifaceted initiative in India to safeguard users from harm online. They achieved this by launching a variety of new projects, programmes, partnerships, and investments, claiming that cybersecurity was one of the biggest issues facing the world. The corporation claimed that these measures were taken to assist defend the nation’s developing digital economy against online threats.

Along with a multilingual user awareness campaign supported by MeitY and Digital India Corporation to persuade millions of internet users to adopt better practises for safer digital transactions, Google also announced a cybersecurity upskilling programme for about 100,000 developers and IT and startup professionals across the nation.

Additionally, it stated that the first donations from Google.org in India would be made to charity organisations including the Collective Good Foundation, Point of View, and HelpAge India for $2 million (about Rs 16 crore). The business claimed that this will enable “Those who identify as LGBTQIA+, women, small-business owners, retirees, and other high-risk groups are encouraged to utilise the internet in a secure and confident manner.

According to Hansen, Google will automatically enrol 150 million users in two-step verification or multi-factor authentication in 2021 as part of its aim to “bake in security.” Their chance of having their accounts stolen would be slashed in half as a result.

He stated: “The majority of our business is conducted online. Because we aim to make the entire ecosystem safer, we invest money in open source and the internet. For India, which is expanding and utilising many of the advantages of a digital economy, I believe it’s extremely crucial. India is actually gaining ground on other nations in several aspects.” ZZED News