WHO HE IS

• India’s leading digital defender. As a cybersecurity sentinel, he’s got a ringside view of how warfare is evolving: digital as the new theatre of crime, conflict, cognitive warfare. Intelligence as the new battlefield. AI on the frontlines. 

• The force leading Innefu Labs. A first-of-its-kind Indian defence-tech startup that’s separating signal from noise in today’s Information Age – and transforming data into digital intelligence. From social media buzz and WhatsApp forwards to satellite pics and telecom communications: “everything is fair game for intel”.

• An architect of Indian internet’s immune system. With India pushing forward in its quest for tech sovereignty – from chips to AI – Innefu is building cybersecurity solutions for both the Indian state and India Inc – from the Indian Army, Delhi police and RBI to Adani and Reliance. Consider it India’s own version of Palantir – the big data American company helping track networks, risks, and patterns invisible to everyone else – for governments, militaries, and Fortune 500 companies. 

• From dirty money to digital deception to drug routes, Wig’s work targets the full spectrum. Innefu helps track and bust disinformation campaigns. Makes “sense of the chaos” through the intelligence fusion centres they’ve helped build at the National Investigation Agency. Works with the Indian revenue department to identify GST fraud. Helps with predictive policing. And more. 

WHY HIS WORK IS URGENT 

• Every country, company and individual today is a click away from crisis. Whether from a hostile state or a lone hacker. 

• Consider: A drained bank account. A hacked WhatsApp message. Unauthorised access, data theft, online scams. Cast a wider net: Disrupted energy grid disrupted. Frozen banking systems. Crippled airports. Deepfakes and disinformation running riot in people’s minds.

• Cybercrime is expected to cost the global GDP $10.5 trillion in 2025. If measured as a country, cybercrime counts as the world’s third largest economy. 

• And in September 2025, the world reportedly saw its very first large-scale AI-led cyberattack. Anthropic’s Claude was hacked to turn into a cybercriminal and target 17 organisations, including healthcare providers, emergency services, government institutions. With minimal human intervention. Imagine the threat landscape once AI agents – full blown autonomous software that reason, plan, and act on their own – become the new norm. 

INDIA IN THE CROSSHAIRS

• India’s cyberspace is the 2nd most targeted in the world. In 2025 alone, it faced over 2000 cyberattacks – per week, per organisation. 

• Three facts why India’s digital landscape is ripe for the picking: 1) 971 million people – or 86% of Indian households – are connected to the internet. 2) India’s UPI is the world’s largest real-time digital payment system – processing more daily transactions than Visa – and at one point in 2025, it hit a record 700 million transactions in a day. 3) India’s digital economy is on track to contribute one-fifth of its GDP by 2030. 

• No wonder cybersecurity incidents in the country more than doubled between the short span of 2022 and 2024, from “digital arrests” to GPS spoofing at major airports. Or that between 2019 and 2023, cyber attacks on the Indian government rose by 138%. 

• And no wonder that cyberattacks have become war weaponry. India’s critical infrastructure faced 1.5 million cyberattacks during Operation Sindoor – including 2,00,00 attacks alone on the national power grid. At the same time, influence operations – fake news, misleading posts, false narratives – fronted a psych war among the general population, in addition to kinetic conflict on the border.  

AT SYNAPSE

Tarun Wig will reveal why data is a ticking time bomb. How he’s making sense of relentless, noisy information streams where threats hide in plain sight. India’s cyber threat landscape and why it needs indigenous solutions. How he’s building digital defences. Why AI is a double edged sword – and yet why it will still become the backbone of modern public safety architecture. 

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