A lot of cybersecurity solutions utilised by Google worldwide were developed and first introduced to India, according to Royal Hansen, Vice President of engineering for privacy, safety and security at Google.

Speaking to businessline during the tech company’s flagship event in the country, Google for India 2022, the senior executive noted that Google Pay has significantly contributed towards developing Google’s AI algorithms for anti-fraud and anti-abuse detection used widely. “We have introduced these practices in our product portfolio worldwide. For instance, a lot of the algorithms we use to vet applications on Google Play Store have their home in India,” said Hansen.

Similar to the US

Hansen also described India’s cybersecurity landscape to be quite similar to the US, adding that India faces cybersecurity threats across all dimensions, from nation-states to organised crime, to hacktivists. “In many ways, we consider India an amalgamation of many countries since like other countries, India sees cybersecurity threats across all domains,” said Hansen.

Google has launched a spate of roadshows in the country, in the past few months to encourage, developers, MSMEs and start-ups to bolster their cybersecurity through Google products.

According to Hansen, Google has trained 40,000 developers in cyber security so far. On the new data protection bill, Hansen said, “The India dialogue is similar to what is happening in other major digital economic centres; the Indian dialogue reminds me the kind of dialogue which is happening between players in the States, govt industry civil society in the States.”

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