Airtel and Zscaler launch cybersecurity research center to combat AI-driven threats in India

Airtel partners Zscaler to launch cybersecurity research centre amid rising AI-driven threats

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Mittal said the telecom operator will dedicate the company's vast network infrastructure and team of data analysts to a cybersecurity research centre to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. The research centre, announced in partnership with cloud security provider Zscaler at the India AI Impact Summit, will leverage advanced telemetry data and latest AI technologies to monitor enterprise and government traffic to identify threats and take necessary actions in conjunction with government agencies. Mittal said he expects other companies to join the initiative, eventually making it the primary agency protecting India's cyberspace. "We will start a wave of new initiatives in the country, where we are going to be writing to enterprises, and government agencies, and we are going to make it bigger because it is going to become the main agency in protecting the nation," Mittal said. In every part of the world the threat is growing exponentially in every aspect, especially given that AI is now being used extensively by bad actors, Mittal said.

Zscaler and Bharti Airtel Launch AI & Cyber Threat Research Center

Zscaler in partnership with Bharti Airtel announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center - India. This multi-stakeholder digital initiative is dedicated to advancing national cyber resilience, protecting sectors, industries and assets that are essential to India's economic and national security, such as telecommunications, banking, and energy, as well as digital users, and accelerating trusted AI adoption across India's rapidly expanding digital ecosystem. India is in the midst of a generational digital transformation, building systems not at enterprise scale, but at population scale across critical sectors - dramatically expanding the national attack surface. At the same time, the threat landscape is evolving at machine speed, with nation state and financially-motivated attackers increasingly leveraging AI to probe, target, and weaponize vulnerabilities in minutes. Zscaler's research arm, ThreatLabz India, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month, including notable campaigns such as: As threats grow in sophistication, traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer adequate, and disruptions to essential services can threaten national economic stability - making secure-by-design foundations and a modern architectural shift imperative to protect national digital systems in an increasingly borderless, AI-enabled environment. As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine the former's global intelligence with the latter's local operational reach to create a stronger, faster research-to-response loop for India. Zscaler will deploy a specialized threat research team focused on India. This team will leverage the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions, to extract threat intelligence to secure India's public and private sectors. Airtel will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, collaborating with Zscaler to monitor networks and develop new solutions, enabling faster identification of suspicious activity and more effective coordination with ecosystem stakeholders. Looking ahead, additional members from India's critical public and private sectors will be invited to join the center to expand collaboration and strengthen cyber resilience across India. "At Airtel, our commitment has been to safeguard our customers and the nation's digital fabric. This partnership with Zscaler marks a significant extension of this commitment that will combine the power of our AI capabilities and deep scale for cybersecurity research to protect the country's expanding digital ecosystem," said Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman, Bharti Airtel. "We will focus on addressing challenges unique to our market to build a safer, more resilient digital India where every citizen and enterprise can connect and thrive with confidence. Our research-backed preventive mechanism will also encourage peaceful and secure engagements on digital platforms." "India is building digital systems at an unmatched population scale. You cannot secure this level of ambition with legacy firewalls and VPNs that were never designed for a hyper-connected world. It demands a modern Zero Trust architecture that is secure-by-design," said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler. "With the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center - India, we will bring the full power of the world's largest security cloud to protect the nation's public and private sectors. By combining actionable intelligence from over 500 billion daily transactions with local expertise, we aren't just building readiness; we are empowering a new generation of defenders to stay ahead of the adversary."