Date: 6th Jan 2021

This panel is in conjunction with the Workshop on Cyber Security and Blockchain

Remote Working was a norm waiting to happen, COVID-19 only catapulted it to 2020. Work-From-Home (WFH) is now the new normal be it businesses, enterprise, governments, etc. and while it reduces the physical infrastructure, it necessitates strategic preparedness of processes and procedures. With threat actors finding newer ways to disrupt businesses, most of us have been caught completely off guard with insufficient safeguards leading to a myriad of security challenges across the globe and these can be primarily categorized under network security, cloud security and user level security. The focus now is firmly on cybersecurity, trust and protecting data. There is an increasing demand for cyber technology which can help protect the data, provide end-to-end security across multiple environments, new authentication methods, monitoring services and most importantly re-imagine risk assessment.

A few aspects that will be deliberated by the panel include:

• Are there defined best practices, optimal safeguards or Standard Operating Procedures for a particular use case such as in the health sector or BFSI that one can call to be a good model for mitigation against cyber attacks?
• What are the assurances of next generation technology for security? Do we have a model for harnessing AI/ML for transforming next generation networks into secure networks with security safeguards?
• With BYOD, teleworking and convergence of devices what are the standards, protocols and user controls required for a trusted secure environment? What roles do the ODMs & OEMs and the NSP, ISPs play?
• How effective has the intervention of a Chief Information Officer and implementation of a Cyber Crisis Management Plan been for an enterprise or any strategic organization that has faced an attack.
• What aspects of cyberspace could be included into the principles of global commons for dealing with cyberspace as the 5th dimension after air, water, land and space?

Lt. General Rajesh Pant

National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC), India

Sanjay Bahl

CERT-In, India

V. Kamakoti

IIT Madras, India

Ryan Ko

The University of Queensland, Australia

Nishanth Chandran

Microsoft Research, India

Suranga Seneviratne

The University of Sydney, Australia

Panel Moderator

Pamela Kumar

TSDSI, India

Tulika Pandey

MEITY, GoI, India

Date: 7th Jan 2021

With convergence of Information and Communication Technologies and the emergence of IoT, the focus in the “5G and beyond era” is shifting towards digital transformation of Vertical Industries, This makes it imperative to understand and develop the Use cases – i.e., the new ways of doing things that new technologies can enable. This panel intends to address the following questions :

• Why is it important to develop Vertical Industry driven Use Cases for deployment of 5G and other emerging technologies? What is the role of Use Cases in influencing the direction of new technology (6G)?
• Can you give examples of efforts being made by any vertical industry to develop Use cases ? What are the challenges in engaging experts from Vertical Industries in this process?
• What is the recommended process for developing Vertical driven Use cases? What can be done by Government, Industry (bodies) and Academia to enable the next revolution of "verticalisation of ICT"?

Puneet Jain

Intel, USA

Arun K Mishra

NSGM, India

Geetha Manjunath

Niramai, India

Sangeeth S. Nambiar

Robert Bosch, India

R K Pathak

Department of Telecommunications, India

A S Ramasastri

IDRBT, India

Panel Moderator

Pamela Kumar

TSDSI, India

Date: 8th Jan 2021

Communication networks are being transformed with the emergence of programmable technologies such as SDN, NFV, storage virtualization, and fog and edge computing. This evolution, and increasing complexity in networking and its applications, has triggered the need for network automation. The networking dynamics present opportunities and challenges for using AI/ML techniques for critical applications such as resource allocation, network monitoring, security enforcement, and dynamic network management -- real-time online analysis as well as techniques for offline deep analysis of massive historical data.

Followings are some of the questions, among others, which will be deliberated:

• Can you give examples of successful applications and use cases of applying AI/ML in network automation?
• What are important considerations for AI/ML application with respect to data collection, management and storage; model development, training and validation; model deployment, monitoring, updates in service, and life cycle management?
• How can domain knowledge in networking inform different aspects of applying ML techniques such as problem formulation, feature engineering, feature selection, and deployment?
• What can be done by standards groups, academia and government to address the challenges of the application of AI/ML to communication networks?

Pushpak Bhattacharyya

IIT Bombay, India

Jatin Parekh

Arista Networks, India

Prapanch Ramamoorthy

CISCO, India

Vishnu Ram

TSDSI, India

Marina Thottan

Nokia Bell Labs, USA

Panel Moderator

Veena Mendiratta

Nokia Bell-Labs, Naperville, IL, USA