Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur jointly launch a four-year Bachelor of Cybersecurity (B.Cyber.) programme designed to be practice-oriented. The programme begins with the academic year starting July 2026 and admissions are conducted jointly by the two IITs. It combines classroom learning with extensive industry exposure, highlighted by a two-year Field Deployment Professional Project in the final four semesters, during which students work on live cybersecurity projects under guidance from professionals from strategic and critical organisations.
The competency-based curriculum builds skills across multiple cybersecurity domains. It includes security operations, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, secure systems, malware analysis, firmware reverse engineering, hardware security and cloud security, as well as critical infrastructure security. Students also undertake laboratory-based training during the early years in areas such as computer systems, programming, Linux system administration, cryptography, operating systems, computer networks, ethical hacking, and web security, before moving into advanced specialisation.
The institutes say the programme is intended to help address a large workforce gap for cybersecurity professionals in India, often cited as close to 1.5 million, and to prepare graduates for roles in cyber defence, security operations centres, penetration testing, digital forensics and cloud or hardware security, with additional pathways for further study and research.
