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

Airtel Zscaler Partnership Establishes New Defense Against Cyberattacks

Bharti Airtel and cloud security provider Zscaler announced the launch of the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center - India at the India AI Impact Summit, marking a significant step in protecting India's critical infrastructure from escalating cyberattacks1

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. Sunil Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Airtel, committed the telecom operator's vast network infrastructure and team of data analysts to this multi-stakeholder initiative designed to secure India's digital ecosystem1

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. The center will leverage advanced telemetry data and latest AI technologies to monitor enterprise and government traffic, identifying threats and coordinating responses with government agencies1

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Addressing AI-Driven Threats at Population Scale

India faces a rapidly evolving threat landscape as the nation undergoes a generational digital transformation, building systems at population scale rather than enterprise scale across telecommunications, banking, and energy sectors2

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. This expansion dramatically increases the national attack surface while malicious actors increasingly leverage AI to probe and weaponize vulnerabilities in minutes2

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. ThreatLabz India, Zscaler's research arm, has observed millions of infiltration attempts each month targeting India's digital infrastructure2

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. Mittal emphasized that AI-driven threats are growing exponentially as bad actors deploy AI extensively, making traditional perimeter-based security models inadequate for national cybersecurity1

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Combining Global Threat Intelligence with Local Operational Reach

The cybersecurity research initiative combines Zscaler's global threat intelligence with Airtel's local operational capabilities to create a faster research-to-response loop for national cyber resilience2

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. Zscaler will deploy a specialized threat research team focused on India, leveraging the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform that processes over 500 billion daily transactions to extract threat intelligence for securing India's public and private sectors2

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. Airtel will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, collaborating with Zscaler to develop new solutions that enable faster identification of suspicious activity2

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. Gopal Vittal, Executive Vice-Chairman of Bharti Airtel, stated the partnership combines AI capabilities and deep scale for cybersecurity research to protect the country's expanding digital ecosystem2

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Building a Multi-Stakeholder Defense Ecosystem

Mittal expects other companies to join this initiative, envisioning it as the primary agency protecting India's cyberspace1

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. Additional members from India's critical public and private sectors will be invited to join the AI & Cyber Threat Research Center to expand collaboration and strengthen defenses across the nation2

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. Jay Chaudhry, CEO and Founder of Zscaler, emphasized that securing digital systems at population scale demands a modern Zero Trust architecture that is secure-by-design, noting that legacy firewalls and VPNs were never designed for a hyper-connected world2

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. The center aims to empower a new generation of defenders to stay ahead of adversaries by combining actionable intelligence with local expertise to secure India's digital ecosystem where every citizen and enterprise can connect and thrive with confidence2

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