New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS): Leading IT training firm NIIT and EC Council have entered into a strategic partnership to jointly address the cyber security concerns of a fast digitalising India by training ethical hackers, the global talent development corporation said Wednesday.

The institutions aim to introduce a first-of-its-kind training programme in ethical hacking to create a manpower pool of trained InfoSec professionals in the country, NIIT said in a statement here.

"While India has grown rapidly to deliver IT Services globally, skills in the area of information security have lagged behind. With IT services consumption growing in the domestic market, there is an urgent need to address this gap. NIIT’s partnership with EC Council will give a much needed impetus to information security training and certification in India,” Shivan Bhargava, group president - skills & careers group, NIIT said.

According to the recent McKinsey Digital Consumer survey, India’s internet users are expected to go up to 370 million in 2015.

“EC Council is dedicated to strengthening cyber security in India, and to tackle the issue of the lack of skilled professionals on a backdrop of a growing nuisance of cyber crimes across industries in India,” Jay Bavisi, president and co-founder, EC Council said.

EC Council is one of the world’s largest certification bodies for Information Security professionals.

With rapid increase in cybercrime, organizations are grappling with the challenge of embracing disruptive technologies and trends like cloud, mobile and social computing that significantly improve productivity, while at the same ensuring security for businesses conducted in the cyber space.