KOLKATA: With the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) policy, demand for skilled cyber security professionals in India is likely to rise in the coming years, said a top official of Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), a global information technology (IT) association. 

The Department of Electronic and Information Technology (DeitY), under the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, has defined ‘Internet of things’ as a seamless connected network of devices that enables machine-to-machine communication without human intervention using standard and interoperable communication protocols.

While personal computers, phones and tablets, which require human intervention, are not part of IoT, a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders, self-driven automobiles with built-in sensors are usually considered globally as part of IoT.

“The ministry has already come up with a draft IoT policy and the final policy is expected soon,” said ISACA international vice-president R. Vittal Raj.

With a major growth in the development of IoT devices, a preventive mechanism to deal with potential cyber crimes needs to be developed in the country, he said.

The ministry has set a target of building an IoT industry of $15 billion by 2020 and is eyeing a market share of five - six per cent of the global IoT industry, which will reach $300 billion, according to Gartner.

For implementing IoT, the government is looking at areas like agriculture, health, water quality, natural disasters, transportation, security, automobiles, supply chain management, smart cities, automatic metering in various sectors.

Raj added that while in India the policy framework is in place, implementation of cyber security is still a major hurdle.

Talking about Kolkata specifically, he said that ISACA is looking to tie up with educational institutions to develop skilled professionals in the sector.