Project Cy-Cops is a novel and path breaking project in the domain of cyber security education. Cyber Crime and insecurity is on a steep upward curve. As a result all sections of society, which includes children; students; youth; women; housewives; professionals; businesses; elderly and what have you are being regularly targeted with all types of cyber attacks. Consequently not only is the cyber crime increasing but also there is a literal panic among the citizenry regarding their safety in the virtual world.

The solution to these problems ironically lies in the hands of the citizens themselves – as the only key to cyber safety for all denizens of the virtual world is their own awareness. This is not the best solution but The only solution available at the present time. Awareness is knowing and then doing the right things at the right time. This awareness leads to alertness and which in turn leads to security.

The effort to bring about awareness in the citizenry is being done by various systems and setups through seminars; workshops and webinars. The “BLACK RIBBON INITIATIVE” of Dr Varun Kapoor, IPS for cyber security awareness has even created a world record in this field. Under this Initiative and its sister campaigns like THE BLUE PALM; LECTURE SERIES & ROARING TIGER INITIATIVE – Dr Varun Kapoor has carried out over 800 cyber security awareness sessions across the country as well as the world. This effort has been recorded by the WORLD BOOK OF RECORDS, London as an official world record.

But this apparently is not enough and the time has come for moving from cyber security awareness into the domain of cyber security education. For this it is imperative that school children are introduced from an early age to the concepts of cyber security and safety. As a result of this continued exposure their behaviour in the digital world will be more measured and secure and hence their security situation will improve. They will then be not only good citizens but also secure Netizens. With this we enter the domain of Project Cy-Cops.

The first phase will entail the training of teachers from established schools in Indore city in a two day intense training of trainer’s type of program. They will be provided with training kits; training materials; training inputs and other wherewithal during this totally free of cost TOT. They will thus qualify to be Cy-Cop Ambassadors and will be certified as such. A number of such sessions will be organised. These teachers in turn will go back to their schools and impart this security knowledge to their students. These students will be the true Cy-Cops. The names and details of these trained students will be uploaded to the Project Cy-Cops command centre by the teachers and the students will also receive their certificates. This will develop a Cy-Cop student community who will then be involved by the Project Cy-Cops Administrators led by Dr Varun Kapoor in various competitive and entertaining activities.

The second phase will be the digital outreach part of the project where teacher’s from all over the state will be digitally trained and developed as Cy-Cop Ambassadors. This will increase the spread and effect of this novel project that has been conceived, designed and developed by Dr Varun Kapoor, IPS.