Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility and it is through collaboration that businesses, corporate houses, CIOs/CTOs, and CISOs can create a safer and more resilient digital world. With this core principle in mind, the 9th edition of the Cyber and Data Security Summit 2025 was held in the capital city of New Delhi. The theme -  Recognizing Excellence in Digital Innovation highlighted the importance of building a secure, digital-first future where innovation and security are seamlessly integrated.

With a focus on addressing the evolving challenges of cyber threats and data security, the summit offered insightful discussions, keynotes, expert presentations and corporate insights and valuable networking opportunities with cybersecurity and data privacy experts.

The dignitaries who graced the occasion included Shri B. Shanker Jaiswal, IPS, Joint CP (Operations & Licensing), Delhi Police; Brijesh Singh, IPS, ADGP Police & Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Government of Maharashtra; Justice Girish Kathpalia – Judge, Delhi High Court; Dr. Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Lee Nocon, Co-Founder & CTO, Data Safeguard India; Prof. Kamaljeet Sandhu, University of New England, Australia; and Prof. Amlan Chakrabarti, Director, A.K. Choudhury School of IT, University of Calcutta; Dr. Harold D’Costa, President – Cyber Security Corporation; .

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Editor-in-chief, VARINDIA presented the welcome address, in which he spoke about the emerging Cybersecurity and AI trends. “India is making significant strides in Artificial Intelligence. The government has announced the development of an indigenous Large Language Model (LLM), expected to be ready within 10 months.  But at the same time, cybersecurity threats are intensifying. India ranks second globally in cyberattacks, trailing only the United States. 95 organizations in India suffered data breaches in 2024, marking a sharp rise in cyber incidents.”

To present the inaugural address, Dr. Pavan Duggal, Advocate- Supreme Court of India took to the stage and engaged the audience on key aspects of cybersecurity trends and practices.

The next address was by Shri B. Shanker Jaiswal, IPS, Joint CP (Operations & Licensing), Delhi Police, an industry and subject matter expert on the Cybercrime and Digital Arrest, who gave his overview on the future outlook of data and security landscape.

In the corporate presentations, Ram Vaidyanathan, Cybersecurity evangelist – ManageEngine commenced the session with his insights on the growing potential of AI in cybersecurity in the year 2025 and beyond.  

The next presenter was Nakul Khandelwal, Director of Product Management, Qualys, who presented his views on Risk Harmonics, a comprehensive insight into enterprise cyber risk data.

Professor Kamaljeet Sandhu from University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, a renowned research leader in AI and cybersecurity, was the next speaker who spoke on Challenges & Opportunities in the age of AI for global cybersecurity leaders.

The first panel discussion for the day was on the topic - Data Privacy: A Ticking Time Bomb for the Industry and it was moderated by Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Editor-in-chief-VARINDIA. The panelists who joined the session were Sameer Mathur, Founder & CEO - S M Consulting; Sushant Mohapatra, Sr. lawyer- Supreme Court of India; Shantanu Sahay, Partner- Anand and Anand; Major Subhendu Mahunta, Director-Financial Crime Prevention - FPL Technologies; Anil Kaushik, Founder & Vice Chairman, Cybercorp Ltd and Mahi Gupta, Director (Privacy Strategy) - Data Safeguard.

In the afternoon session, leading Cyber Security Evangelist and Risk Advisory Expert, Dr. Rakshit Tandon presented his speech on AI in Cyber Security and the potential it holds in fueling the next generation of cyber-attacks.

Akshay Garg, Sr. Presales & Business Manager - Varonis Systems in his presentation, gave his valuable perspective on data security and risk management.

The second panel discussion for the day was titled - Mitigating Security Risks in Emerging Technologies and it was moderated by Deepak Maheshwari, Sr. Consultant- Centre of Social & Economic Progress. The panelists for this session included Pawan Chawla, CISO & DPPO- TATA AIA Life Insurance; Mayank Mehta, CISO- Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance; Kapil Madan, CISO & DPO- Max Healthcare; Amit Dhawan, CEO - Network Intelligence; Sujoy Brahmachari, CIO & CISO- Rosmerta Technologies Ltd. and Manoj Srivastava, CIO- EaseMyTrip. The session delved on how with the surge of cyber intrusions over the past decade that causes data breaches, disruptions, and financial losses highlights the urgent need for strong cybersecurity to protect critical information and infrastructure.

Esteemed speaker and Guest of Honour, Brijesh Singh, IPS, is the ADGP and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, shared an inspiring and insightful speech on cybersecurity and digital transformation.

The third and the final panel discussion session was on the topic - From Risk to Resilience and it was moderated by Gyana Swain, Consulting Editor- VARINDIA. The panelists joining this session were Vijay Sethi, Chief Mentor- Digital transformation and sustainability evangelist; Bharat B Anand, Group Chief Information & Technology Officer- Connect Global; Bhaskar Rao, CISO - The Bharat Cooperative Bank Mumbai Ltd.; Khushbu Jain, Advocate- Supreme Court of India & Founder - Ark Legal; Ritesh Kumar - Assistant Vice President – EXL and Dr. Yusuf Hashmi, Group CISO- Jubilant Bhartia Group. The discussion offered key takeaways on how to protect critical assets while enabling innovation in an increasingly interconnected, data-driven world where cybersecurity remains a top challenge.

The next presenter was Deepa Ojha, Manager - Privacy & Policy – DSCI, who spoke on the topic of data protection for a Digital India, on how to empower individuals, businesses and the nation.

Rajaram Venkatesan, Geo Lead- India-South and Sri Lanka, SOTI addressed the audience on the topic of next gen mobile workforce management. He spoke about SOTI being a global leader in enterprise mobility and IoT management, offering innovative, secure, and scalable solutions to help businesses optimize and control their mobile operations.

Tarun Pratap Singh, Associate Vice President - Cyber Security Practice, Hitachi Systems India shared his presentation where he spoke at length about several cyber security practices.

Next on stage was Guest of Honour, Dr. Pankaj Dikshit, CTO – GeM, Government of India who shared his insights on the crucial topic of how to secure IT Systems against AI-generated attack vectors.

Anuj Aggarwal, Chairman of the Centre for Research on Cyber Crime & Cyber Law was the next speaker who also kick started the evening session. He shared his insights on the topic of DPDP implementation, challenges, and solutions.

Continuing the trajectory set by the morning session, the next speaker to come up on stage in the evening session was Aman Thareja, MD - Forcepoint India & South Asia.

Justice Girish Kathpalia – Judge, Delhi High Court gave his keynote address which enthralled the audience.

Lee Nocon, Co-Founder & CTO of Data Safeguard India, a seasoned cybersecurity and data protection expert who travelled all the way from Santa Clara, USA, spoke on the topic of the future of data privacy and compliance.

In the Tech Talk session, Prof. Amlan Chakrabarti, Professor and Director, A.K. Choudhury School of IT, University of Calcutta spoke on how to decode malicious cyrillic URLs, the threats that are powered by Deep Neural Networks. He went on to enlighten the audience on how cybercriminals use cyrillic-based URLs for phishing attacks.

The last presenter for the day was Dr. Harold D’Costa, President – Cyber Security Corporation, who shared his expertise on cyber-attack mitigation and its techno-legal perspective.

The security event also witnessed the unveiling of the e-Magazine on The Technology Trends Handbook, a platform where corporates offered their comprehensive views on this year’s top technology trends and forecasts.

The much awaited part of the event was however the awards ceremony where security OEMs and vendors were recognized and felicitated. These awards are based on the feedback received from the end-users in the survey conducted over VARINDIA platform i.e. VARINDIA.COM.

The winners are -

·         BEST COMPANY INTO CLOUD SECURITY SOLUTION -  QUALYS SECURITY TECHSERVICES PVT. LTD.

·         BEST DATA LOSS PREVENTION (DLP) PRODUCT - FORCEPOINT SOFTWARE CONSULTING INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

·         BEST UNIFIED ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT - MANAGE ENGINE, A division of ZOHO CORPORATION

·         BEST THREAT INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM - CYBLE SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.

·         BEST SD-WAN SOLUTION PROVIDER - FORTINET TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD.

·         BEST UNIFIED ENDPOINT MANAGEMENT - SOTI INDIA PVT. LTD.  

·         BEST COMPANY INTO NETWORK SECURITY - CISCO SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD.

·         BEST COMPANY INTO DATA SECURITY - VARONIS SYSTEMS, INC

·         BEST COMPANY INTO DATA PRIVACY - DATA SAFEGUARD INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

·         BEST COMPANY INTO IT & OT SECURITY - CHECKPOINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD.

CDS 2025 also took the opportunity to celebrate the outstanding contributions of the Top 10 Partners & VARs of India in various categories. The winners are -

·         BEST VAR - CYBER SECURITY - ADIT MICROSYS PVT. LTD.

·         BEST CLOUD SECURITY PARTNER - INTENSITY GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.

·         BEST MANAGED SECURITY SERVICE PROVIDER - ALSTONIA CONSULTING LLP

·         BEST PARTNER INTO PROVIDING DATA PRIVACY SOLUTION - HITACHI SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD.

·         FASTEST GROWING CYBERSECURITY PARTNER - ACPL SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.

·         BEST VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTOR - IVALUE INFOSOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.

·         BEST CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY PARTNER - VALUE POINT SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.

·         BEST NEXT GEN CYBER SECURITY - BLACKBOX LTD.

·         EMERGING VAD IN INDIA - FRUX TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.

·         BEST DISTRIBUTOR INTO CYBER SECURITY - RAH INFOTECH PVT. LTD.