The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has partnered with private lender IDBI Bank to launch the IDBI-IITM Secure Systems Lab (I22SSL), a cybersecurity laboratory, here on Wednesday.

The cybersecurity laboratory will develop and deploy security solutions in crucial sectors such as healthcare, fintech and aerospace among others, IIT Madras said.

The lab will focus on creating market-ready intellectual properties (IP) in cybersecurity, productisation and commercialisation of research work, especially for mobile technologies, IIT Madras added.

The lab was inaugurated at the IIT Madras campus on Tuesday by Rakesh Sharma, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IDBI Bank in the presence of Prof V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras and other officials.

With the rapid growth of Internet connectivity and automation, many critical sectors such as Banking, Finance and Insurance, Transportation, Government, Power and Energy, Telecom, and Strategic and Public Enterprises, depend considerably on Information and Communication Technologies. This has led to an explosion of cyber-attacks on these infrastructures by hackers.

The lab would focus on cybersecurity in systems deployed in industries such as banking, automotive, power and telecommunications, among others, and undertake experimental evaluation and assessment exercises. The researchers would also develop test cases for testing, carry out vulnerability research, and help devise hardening guidelines. It would help Enterprise Systems in managing cybersecurity risks in real-time, IIT Madras said.

"This initiative is a testament to IDBI Bank's commitment to proactively combating cyber threats and ensuring the security of data and information. We are optimistic that through such initiatives, we can together enhance our ability to anticipate, identify, and neutralize potential threats building a more secure environment for all," Sharma said.

"The finance sector, being a critical information infrastructure that forms the foundation of the economy of our country is facing increasing number of cybersecurity challenges on a day-to-day basis. It is very important to continuously keep studying the threat landscape and come out with effective proactive protection mechanisms. This joint effort between IIT Madras and IDBI is very timely and we aspire to comprehensively address the security challenge," Kamakoti said.

The I2SSL, IIT Madras, plans to ingeniously design systems for critical applications such as hardware firewalls, point-of-sale devices, and mobile banking. Security would be achieved using memory safe languages, tagged architectures that provide fine grained access control, memory encryption, and an indigenously developed Trusted Platform Module (TPM).

According to IIT Madras, in the area of cryptography, researchers will work towards developing hardware accelerators for crypto-primitives including symmetric and asymmetric-key cryptography as well as post-quantum cryptography.