Against the backdrop of rising cyber threats, nearly 100 officials from 42 rural financial institutions gathered in Lucknow for a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity drill aimed at strengthening digital resilience across India’s rural banking system.
The 2-day exercise was held on February 23 and 24, 2026, at the Bankers Institute of Rural Development campus in Lucknow. The drill was organised under the guidance of Dr. Nirupam Mehrotra, Director, BIRD Lucknow, and Dr. Sanjay Bahl, Director General, CERT-In. Participants witnessed live simulations of cyber incidents, including compromised servers, disrupted internal communication, and frozen digital payment systems.
Titled “Building Cyber Resilience in Regional Rural Banks and Rural Cooperative Banks,” the program was a joint initiative of the Bankers Institute of Rural Development, Lucknow, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, and the Department of Supervision at the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Officials described it as a milestone effort to address the growing cyber risks linked to rapid digital adoption in rural finance.
The drill was designed as a structured intervention to improve preparedness among Regional Rural Banks and Rural Cooperative Banks. NABARD officials said a roadmap is being rolled out to extend similar cyber drills to all such institutions, signalling a move toward uniform resilience standards.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Nirupam Mehrotra stressed the need to move beyond routine compliance and audits. He highlighted the importance of continuous capacity building, structured readiness programs, and practical drills that reflect real-world cyber threats.
The keynote address was delivered by Shri Ashutosh Bahuguna, Scientist and Additional Director at CERT-In. He outlined national cybersecurity priorities and called for a shift from reactive security approaches to comprehensive resilience frameworks that can anticipate, absorb, and recover from cyberattacks.
Senior CERT-In officials led technical sessions on cyber crisis management planning, defence controls, awareness protocols, and incident response. These included Shri Shashank Gupta and Shri Abhishek Solanki, both Scientists and Joint Directors. The sessions combined expert briefings with scenario-based exercises, allowing participants to respond to simulated disruptions.
A central feature of the program was a hands-on cybersecurity threat simulation and technical drill. Teams worked through staged attack scenarios, focusing on breach detection, containment, system recovery, and decision-making under pressure.
The program was conducted under the overall guidance of Dr. Sriram Appulingam, Joint Director at BIRD Lucknow, and coordinated by Shri Ravi Chandra Yadav and Shri Anuj Kumar Singh, faculty members at BIRD. Officials from NABARD’s Department of Supervision, including Shri Sanjeev Kumar, Deputy General Manager, and Dr. Nalin Rai, Assistant General Manager, provided supervisory inputs linking cyber preparedness with regulatory expectations.
Officials said the initiative reflects a strategic shift in rural banking governance as digital services expand. Organisers noted that resilience, coordination, and crisis preparedness are now as critical as traditional financial safeguards.
“Cyber crisis drills are no longer optional—they are essential survival tools for modern digital enterprises. In an era of evolving cyber threats, preparedness through realistic simulations is critical. At the Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF), we actively conduct such specialised drills on demand for the BFSI sector to strengthen resilience and response capabilities,” said Prof. Triveni Singh, Ex-IPS officer and Chief Mentor, FCRF.
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