Airtel tackles rising India threats with AI centre

Bharti Airtel and cloud security firm Zscaler are setting up an AI-driven cyber threat research centre in India, aiming to shore up defences for critical sectors including telecoms. The hub will extend Zscaler’s existing India operations and act as a national platform where government, private companies and universities can share data and research on cyber risks.

Airtel says India’s rapid digitisation across essential services has widened the country’s attack surface, while attackers increasingly use AI to find and exploit weaknesses in minutes. Zscaler reports millions of infiltration attempts each month, from espionage to broad attacks on public and private systems. The new centre has four stated goals: provide real-time threat intelligence for national cyber resilience, work with government to prevent attacks, promote modern security frameworks with a focus on AI defences, and help train more cybersecurity specialists. Airtel and Zscaler are the founding members and are inviting other public and private organisations to join.