Latest news with #HeatherAdkins
Time of India
23-06-2025
- Time of India
Gen AI in cybersecurity: Will help defenders with better counter measures; India ahead of other nations
Generative artificial intelligence, while being increasingly exploited by cyber criminals to fuel their attacks, is also empowering defenders with faster and smarter responses to online threats, according to Heather Adkins, global VP of engineering at Google Security. Adkins, who has spent more than 20 years at Google, said, generative AI will give "defenders" a "leg up" over the threat actors.' 'We will be able to leverage Gen AI to protect infrastructure in new ways that we've never thought of before and also at a speed that we've never been able to achieve before,' she said, quoted by TNN. She said that the same technology being used to plan sophisticated cyberattacks can also help strengthen defence systems. Talking about cyberattacks in India, the Google security VP pointed out that the government is "very engaged" and has been ahead of many other nations in tackling these threats. 'It's a hot topic. They've done a very good job in getting involved quickly and partnering with companies. The workforce here and education levels in India are pretty high. There are parts of the world I go where they're just now starting to think about cyber security and they're much further behind India.' Google Security now plans to set up an engineering centre in India. She further warned of the growing threat posed by state-sponsored cyberattacks, particularly as geopolitical tensions continue to rise, putting the world at risk. 'It's a question of who has more time. And, if you think about a well-funded nation state, may be they'll create a project, put 100 people on it, and they just work on that project throughout the day... So, they often know more because they have more time, not because they're smarter. I would say they're more likely to be successful.' Adkins highlighted the need to educate users alongside building tools, stating that digital instincts must be developed to spot malicious content online. 'Unlike the physical world where you have instincts and senses to identify something dangerous, the online world does not have a parallel. We have to build that,' she said. Despite the rising tempo and complexity of attacks, Adkins believed that the cybersecurity landscape is in a better place today. 'There's no doubt that we're seeing an increase in the tempo and sophistication of attacks. But today, more than ever before, enterprises have better tools.' Cybersecurity looked 'primitive' 23 years ago, while now, most solutions have security built into them, she added. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
19-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Google opens Asia Pacific (APAC's) first safety centre in Hyderabad; to tackle AI fraud, cybercrime; CM Revanth Reddy hails Telangana's tech rise
HYDERABAD: Tech giant Google unveiled its first safety engineering centre (GSEC) in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and its fourth globally after Munich, Dublin, and Malaga (Spain), in Hyderabad on Wednesday. GSEC India is housed within what is Google's largest base outside the US and was also its first port of call in India in 2004. An official statement said GSEC India will not only address the rapidly evolving threat landscape of India, which faces projected cybercrime losses of up to Rs 20,000 crore by 2025, but will also serve as a global hub of safety innovation driven by a combination of AI-powered threat detection, ecosystem collaboration, and policy measures. Heather Adkins, vice president of engineering, Google Security, said GSEC India will serve as a global lighthouse for their digital safety and security efforts. She said Google has been investing in security and safety teams in Hyderabad over the years and will be looking at investing in hiring the best talent for the centre, which is learnt to have started with around 200-250 engineers. Pivotal moment in T's journey as cybersecurity hub: Revanth The centre will primarily focus on keeping end users safe from online fraud and scams, strengthening cybersecurity for govt and enterprise infrastructure, and building artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025년 가장 여유 넘치는 농장 게임. 설치 없음 Taonga: 아일랜드 팜 플레이하기 Undo It will deploy advanced AI and large language models (LLMs) to power real-time scam alerts on Android, strengthen Google Play Protect, and enhance fraud detection. GSEC India will also tackle AI-driven deception through adversarial testing, AI-assisted red teaming, and tools like SynthID to watermark AI-generated content while focusing on ecosystem collaboration and intelligence sharing through platforms like the Global Signals Exchange (GSE). It will also advance research in areas like Post-Quantum Cryptography through partnerships with academia. Flagging off the facility, chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the first-of-its-kind centre in the Asia-Pacific marks a pivotal moment in Telangana's journey as a global cybersecurity innovation hub. "Google and Hyderabad are old friends... Google today has nearly 7,000 Googlers who call Hyderabad their home," he said, pointing out that the new centre affirms Hyderabad's crucial role in developing privacy, safety, and cyber-defence solutions and will attract top-tier safety engineering talent to the state. He said the Telangana govt was focused on growing to a $1 trillion economy by 2035 and a $3 trillion economy by 2047. "Our population is 2.5% of India's population but contributes 5% to its GDP. By 2047 we want to contribute 10% to India's GDP." IT and industries minister D Sridhar Babu said GSEC India demonstrates the power of public-private partnerships in building a secure digital infrastructure and will serve as a catalyst for innovation in areas critical to India's vision of becoming a global tech leader.
Time of India
18-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India leads many nations in tackling cyber threats, says top Google executive
Google Security's Heather Adkins highlights India's proactive approach to cybersecurity, surpassing many nations in building cyber resilience through government partnership and a skilled workforce. Google Security is establishing an engineering center in India to leverage local talent and enhance cyber safety measures. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads India is emerging as a global front-runner in cybersecurity, outpacing many countries in its proactive efforts to address digital threats, according to Heather Adkins, global VP of engineering for Google on the sidelines of the Safer with Google India Summit, Adkins stressed that India's government has taken a lead in building cyber resilience . 'They've done a very good job in getting involved quickly and partnering with companies. The workforce here and education levels in India are pretty high. There are parts of the world I go where they're just now starting to think about cyber security and they're much further behind India,' she who has spent over 20 years at Google, pointed to India's readiness to tackle evolving cyber threats even as geopolitical tensions risk escalating state-sponsored attacks globally. 'It's a hot topic,' she said, referring to the Indian government's engagement on cyber safety To strengthen its role in this ecosystem, Google Security is setting up an engineering centre in India, leveraging the country's skilled talent pool to enhance cyber safety underlined the dual nature of generative AI (Gen AI) in cybersecurity. While it enables cybercriminals to increase the speed and complexity of attacks, it also arms defenders with tools to outpace adversaries.'There's no doubt that we're seeing an increase in tempo and sophistication of attacks... But I also feel that today, more than ever before, enterprises have better tools,' she said. 'If I think about starting a company 23 years ago, cybersecurity looked primitive then. Today, most of the solutions you're going to buy have security built into them. So, you're in a much better place than you were, say, 20–30 years ago.'She added that Gen AI will give cybersecurity teams an edge. 'We will be able to leverage Gen AI to protect infrastructure in new ways that we've never thought of before and also at a speed that we've never been able to achieve before.'Adkins also flagged the growing threat of state-backed cyber operations. 'It's a question of who has more time. And, if you think about a well-funded nation state, maybe they'll create a project, put 100 people on it, and they just work on that project throughout the day… So, they often know more because they have more time, not because they're smarter. I would say they're more likely to be successful.'While tech companies are developing robust defences, Adkins said user awareness remains equally critical. 'Unlike the physical world where you have instincts and senses to identify something dangerous, the online world does not have a parallel. We have to build that,' she said, emphasising the need to educate users in identifying malicious and fraudulent content.
Time of India
18-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
'India ahead of many in countering cyber threats'
Google Security's Heather Adkins highlights the dual role of generative AI in cybersecurity NEW DELHI: Generative AI, while being used by cyber criminals to further their activities, will also help create stronger and swifter counter-measures, making the internet safer to use, according to Heather Adkins, global VP of engineering for Google Security. Adkins, who spent over two decades at Google, also believes that rise in geopolitical tensions may fuel state-backed cyberattacks, making the world more vulnerable. However, she added that Indian govt has been at forefront of taking measures to counter cyber threats effectively, ahead of many other countries. This will also see Google Security set up an engineering centre in India. Talking to TOI on the sidelines of the 'Safer with Google India Summit', Adkins said while companies create tools to tackle cyber threats, it is equally important to sensitise users about measures to identify malicious and fraudulent content. "Unlike the physical world where you have instincts and senses to identify something dangerous, the online world does not have a parallel. We have to build that." Speaking about state-sponsored cyber threats, she said they can sometimes be more focused and successful with capabilities to deploy large teams towards such activities. "It's a question of who has more time. And, if you think about a well-funded nation state, may be they'll create a project, put 100 people on it, and they just work on that project throughout the day... by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Memperdagangkan CFD Emas dengan salah satu spread terendah? IC Markets Mendaftar Undo So, they often know more because they have more time, not because they're smarter. I would say they're more likely to be successful." On Gen AI and whether it aids cyber criminals too, Adkins said, "There's no doubt that we're seeing an increase in tempo and sophistication of attacks... But I also feel that today, more than ever before, enterprises have better tools. If I think about starting a company 23 years ago, cybersecurity looked primitive then. Today, most of the solutions you're going to buy have security built into them. So, you're in a much better place than you were, say, 20-30 years ago. " She said that Gen AI will give "defenders" a "leg up" over the threat actors. "We will be able to leverage Gen AI to protect infrastructure in new ways that we've never thought of before and also at a speed that we've never been able to achieve before." On India, she said govt here is "very engaged" on cyber safety. "... it's a hot topic. They've done a very good job in getting involved quickly and partnering with companies. The workforce here and education levels in India are pretty high. There are parts of the world I go where they're just now starting to think about cyber security and they're much further behind India." Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Mint
18-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Google invests in SMB cybersecurity adoption as attackers focus on India
NEW DELHI : Big Tech firm Google on Tuesday announced an additional $5 million in funding to global nonprofit The Asia Foundation, as part of its 'Safety Charter' for establishing better cybersecurity practices among India's 75 million-plus small and medium businesses (SMBs). The move is a part of Google's efforts to take global cues and reduce cyber threats encountered by businesses that are largely online-facing, for which India is one of the world's largest markets, said Heather Adkins, vice-president of security engineering and founding member of Google's security team, in an interview with Mint. 'With the sheer volume of the Indian market, there is a massive amount of cyber threats that small businesses with limited resources face in India. We're working with key government departments to raise awareness and help government officials take a cyber-first mindset, and are also ramping up our total funding of cybersecurity clinics for SMBs to $20 million to help the small businesses ramp up the prioritising of cybersecurity initiatives," Adkins said. Also Read: How tech is transforming the Indian car market On Tuesday, Google also said that it is ramping up its existing awareness initiatives with officials at the home affairs ministry and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in the face of rising scams—now popular as digital arrests. Some such attacks have seen individuals lose up to $700,000 in targeted scams, leveraging identity theft, spear phishing, and other various techniques. The Big Tech firm's safety initiatives in question seek to tackle a larger threat, which cybersecurity industry stakeholders have repeatedly raised will require efforts from governments, private firms in a public-private partnership (PPP) model, and stakeholders across agencies. To this end, Adkins said that the company already plays a role in enabling the sharing of data between organisations and geographies, as and where necessary. Collaboration across borders 'Data sharing across geographies still requires the requisite regulations to play out as intended. But if two nations are actively collaborating, then we're often a part of enabling the sharing of information as far as possible for investigations to materialise. On our end, we read trends originating in one geography to enforce preventative measures in another nation, to see if we can prevent scams from replicating across geographies. We're actively leveraging automated and artificial intelligence markers to detect which patterns of usage or conversations lead to scams and cyber breaches, and a key part of our India charter is to try and prevent them," she said. Industry stakeholders believe that investing in a ground-up solution, the roots of which Google underlined as part of its cybersecurity efforts with small businesses, could be key. Also Read: Sarvam, India's most well-funded AI startup, takes to the Big Tech playbook 'By sheer volume, small and medium businesses are the root points of an online security stack, and your cybersecurity is only as secure as its weakest link. To this end, can we set up a cyber dome akin to Israel's 'Iron Dome' air defence system? Today, this is steadily becoming an imperative," said Aditya Varma, commander (retired), Indian Navy and head, defence and homeland security for STL Networks Ltd. The key to achieving this, Varma added, would be to offer a rationalised cost structure for small businesses to invest in cybersecurity. 'It's difficult to demarcate where critical infrastructure begins in a stack of operations among businesses. The government has to play a role in subsidising access to cybersecurity, and companies such as Google, while having the capacity, could see complex business cases in bringing small businesses into the cyber-secure network," he said. Android majority Adkins, however, added that Google continues to invest in cybersecurity efforts in India, since the vast variety of businesses and the size of the country's consumers naturally make it a hotspot for various cyber scams and spam. As part of these efforts, Google is also ramping up its efforts to notify if a call is a potential spam—baking the feature natively into its Android ecosystem, she said. The latter accounts for over 95% of the 750 million active smartphones in India. This is a key factor affecting millions of users daily, beyond cyber attacks permeating small business networks. In February, Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Cyfirma highlighted the propagation of 'SpyLend'—a 'simplified finance and lending" application that spread data-stealing malware across more than 100,000 devices within one week. Also Read: India's big AI test is here: Making sovereign language models work To take on this, India is a key part of Google's security engineering efforts. 'Our security team is spread around the world—overall, we have nearly 8,000 people working horizontally across divisions on security initiatives. In India, we have over 1,000 people based in Bengaluru and Hyderabad working on security in products, security strategies, government partnerships and more. We're using these to scan billions of mobile applications on Android, and eventually, hope that we can filter out as many threats as possible," Adkins said.
