CYBER KUSHTI 2026
Why in News?
- NIELIT, under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), launched CYBER KUSHTI 2026 on 15 August 2026 as a national Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hackathon. It is designed to test human judgement in cybersecurity assessment, rather than merely the speed of finding vulnerabilities.
- It is the official parallel technical track of the 3rd National Conference on Cyber Security, Digital Forensics and Intelligence (NCCDFI 2026).
- The initiative is organised by NIELIT in collaboration with the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) Foundation under the National Security Database (NSD), with CERT-In as Knowledge Partner.
- Unlike conventional Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competitions, participants must evaluate, validate and prioritise cybersecurity findings, including those generated by AI tools.
- Teams receive an identical, deliberately imperfect Security Assessment Package containing AI-generated findings, source code, application logs, architecture documents, static-analysis reports, dependency scans and secrets scans.
- The package intentionally contains genuine vulnerabilities, false positives, duplicated findings and some omitted vulnerabilities, requiring participants to distinguish real threats from misleading outputs.
- The competition progresses through three stages — Akhada, Dangal and Kesari, testing increasingly advanced cybersecurity judgement and decision-making.
- Registration: 15 August–10 September 2026.
- Eligibility: Students and independent researchers.
- Team size: Three members.
- Participation fee: Free.
- The final round will be conducted during NCCDFI 2026 in New Delhi.
- AI + Cybersecurity: Recognises that AI can generate security findings rapidly but may also produce false positives and misleading assessments.
- Human-in-the-Loop: Emphasises that critical cybersecurity decisions still require human reasoning, verification and risk prioritisation.
- Cyber Talent: Builds a skilled pool of cybersecurity professionals capable of working with AI-assisted security systems.
- National Security: Strengthens India's capacity to protect Critical Information Infrastructure, government systems and digital public infrastructure.
- Responsible AI: Demonstrates the importance of maintaining human oversight and accountability in AI-enabled security operations.
