AI Arms Race: How India's Tech Hubs Became Cybersecurity Battlegrounds

Vishal Salvi, Chief Executive Officer of Quick Heal Technologies Ltd discusses India's evolving cyber threats, emphasizing Al-driven security solutions, behavior-based detection, and the need for zerotrust frameworks as organizations combat increasingly sophisticated attacks in 2025.

- Jagrati Rakheja

AS INDIA battles an unprecedented wave of cyber attacks, with a staggering 369 million malware detections across the nation, organizations face increasingly sophisticated threats designed to evade traditional security measures. In this exclusive interview with CISO Forum, Vishal Salvi, Chief Executive Officer of Quick Heal Technologies Ltd, reveals the alarming reality behind these statistics and shares how his company's Seqrite solutions are leveraging artificial intelligence to transform cyber defense. From the 974% surge in behaviorbased malware to the targeting of critical sectors like healthcare and finance, Salvi provides a sobering assessment of India's cybersecurity landscape while offering strategic insights on how enterprises can build resilience against the next generation of Al-powered threats. As regional technology hubs become prime targets and hacktivism escalates alongside geopolitical tensions, Salvi explains why conventional security approaches are failing and how Quick Heal is pioneering AI-driven solutions to stay ahead in this evolving digital battlefield.

CIO&Leader: India is witnessing a surge in cyber threats, with over 369 million detections. What are the primary reasons behind this increase, and how has the threat landscape evolved in recent years?

VISHAL SALVI: India's cyber threat landscape has intensified dramatically, as highlighted in our India Cyber Threat Report 2025, prepared by our researchers at Seqrite Labs, India's largest malware analysis facility, in association with DSCI. Their in-depth analysis revealed 369.01 million malware detections across 8.44 million installations, emphasizing the alarming rise in cyber threats from four primary factors; first, rapid digital trans-formation has expanded the attack surface, particularly in healthcare, hospitality, and financial sectors, which experienced detection rates of 21.82%, 19.57%, and 17.38% respectively per endpoint.