WNS’s CSR arm launches cybersecurity awareness portal for children

WNS, a provider of global business process management services, has launched CyberSmart, a cyber safety awareness and certification portal for students, teachers, volunteers and parents, through its CSR arm, WNS Cares Foundation (WCF).

The aim of the platform is to create awareness and educate students and parents about cyber-safe behaviour via an engaging gamified learning model, said WNS.

The Marathi version of the portal was virtually inaugurated by Satej Patil, Maharashtra Minister of State for Home, Housing, Transport, IT, Parliamentary Affairs & ex-Servicemen Welfare. The interface, available in English, Hindi and Marathi, covers a range of 50,000 concurrent users, without capturing any of their personal data.

Online learning

“Given the pandemic situation we are in, millions of children are exposed to online learning,” Keshav R Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS, told BusinessLine. “Opening up more time on Internet-connected devices has exposed them to unfiltered content, making them vulnerable in cyber space. India is ranked highest in IoT cybersecurity attacks, according to a recent study, and statistics indicate that today 43 per cent children face cyber bullying every day.”

“Therefore, a seismic shift to smarter cybersecurity is the need of the hour, especially for children and youth. The CyberSmart portal is an attempt to create a repository of age-appropriate content that is engaging and empowers children and youth alike to navigate the Internet judiciously,” he added.

WNS said CyberSmart is a free-for-all platform that engages users with a gamified learning model as opposed to voluminous PDF material for teachers, students, volunteers and parents to impart education, using a blend of online and offline methodology. The portal uses thematic, quiz-based learning modules pertinent to different age groups. Each learning journey has a set of 25 question assessments to check learning.

Post completion of all the themes and their respective journeys, every student can download a badge or certificate. The portal allows the issue of a unique ID for every visitor, to retrieve the certificate. It also has a special feature — a call for help button for children under duress.

“Nasscom supports the CyberSmart initiative that would spur a safer Internet landscape across the nation,” said Debjani Ghosh, President of Nasscom. “The launch of the CyberSmart portal could not have come at a more appropriate time. This resource is sure to benefit parents and teachers as much as it will impact students in learning about traversing cyberspace purposefully, during and post Covid-19 world.”

Shamini Murugesh, Honorary Chief Mentor, WCF, said: “With India taking a giant leap in digital learning initiatives, the need to identify protocols for a safe digital landscape and setting up a formal framework is imperative for the best interest of students. CyberSmart materialised from our learnings during the implementation of the WCF Digital Treasure portal, that hosts an e-library with over 400 storybooks, 1,000 e-tutorial videos and textbooks for the Indian curriculum. As we went about teaching WCF children how to use this online learning platform, we realised that there is no awareness amongst kids about cyber safety. This then, became the theme of our subsequent Global Impact Day and a cybersecurity awareness campaign was created for WCF children. Over 1,50,000 children from across the globe participated in a competition organised around this topic and videos created as part of this programme garnered over a million views on YouTube. The lesson we learnt from this experience was that, there is a need for a sustainable, robust learning tool with a concise curriculum that could be accessed by all. Hence the idea of CyberSmart.”