Exciting times! Indo-UK workshop on Cyber security

Well, it was two months back I received an email from PK asking me to help him organize an Indo-UK workshop on Cyber security jointly with RCUK, India. In spite of not having the background details for it, just the word “UK” excited me to work on this. It took me not more than 5 minutes to say a big “Yes”. The next response was a set of tasks required for the same and that too in not less than 5 minutes :D. The workshop was planned for 4 days, March 24-27, 2013 to discuss the Cyber security and online security issues, both in India and UK. It all started within no time..setting up the website…lot of e-mail exchanges (With some very big people!)..designing take-away for the wokshop..handling local administrative issues. With all this heavy exercise for about 3-4 weeks, finally the workshop day was approaching.

Day 1, The Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi: Yes! You read the venue right! The workshop started at the grand 5 star hotel with beautiful scenic view from the roof top. It was a large lobby where we all assembled. Within few hours, there was an onset of the delegates, both British and Indian. The delegation was a good combination of people from Industry and research area. It started with a general introduction, few short sessions describing the landscape of Cyber security in UK and India and an interesting 60 minutes networking session to end the day well. It was two big round concentric circles with Indians taking the inner circle and UK people, on outer circle. We had 5 minute, one-to-one slot where everyone was discussing their work. I too got a golden chance to present my work to all the big dignitaries. I will take pride in saying some were really impressed! 🙂 The day finally ended with a scrumptious dinner and little planning for the next day.

Day 2, IIIT-Delhi: The delegation visited IIIT-Delhi, fascinated with the huge campus and facilities. It went with long hours of brainstorming sessions where there were 4 groups each discussing separate problems relating on and off to Cyber security. The board room looked beautiful with walls covered with multi-coloured post-it containing the gist of each discussion. After enjoying the meal, delegation went through another round of getting and giving the feedbacks to the speaker from each group. To ease the mental fatigue, at the end of the day, there was a tour to the campus, group picture and finally a visit to Barbeque Nation in the evening where everyone enjoyed the unlimited food and drinks. Another satisfying day came to an end.

Day 3, IIIT-Delhi: The morning session was yet another long session where people got shuffled within the groups and carried out the discussions! To end the workshop at IIIT-Delhi (Not the end of the workshop!), momentos were given to the delegation thanking them for their time and efforts. There was a surprise here, I got a gift from RCUK, India for helping them with the workshop. Contended! Afternoon was packing bags for Industrial visit to Infosys, Hyderabad. I was travelling with my advisor, scary and exciting. The former was justified and latter since it was my first visit with him alone! It was fun!

Day 4, Infosys, Hyderabad: It was a Holi day! The day started with presentations on history and work culture at Infosys, interesting demos of the research work being carried out, visiting the labs, interacting with the researchers. Got a chance to meet two of my undergrad friends, played Holi with them. Rejuvenating! With all this, we came back to the board room and we had one more thing in our kitty, colours to play Holi! It was pleasure playing with the UK people and my advisor himself! A day worth spending! Overall, the workshop for wonderful, both personally and professionally. It gave an outlook to the pertaining problems like threat reduction in online social media, risk analysis, privacy laws, human responses to attacks, security management, BYOD policies etc. Looking forward to many more to come!

Attached is the pic of an interesting chat with Ms. Elinor Buxton,The Royal Society as part of the networking session at Oberoi!