The Cybersecurity CoE Mandate: Why Global Firms Are Rushing to Build “Risk Command Centers” in India
By Santosh Sinha | Risk & Cybersecurity Desk Date: November 29, 2025
Bengaluru: The alarm bells are ringing in boardrooms across New York and London, and the solution is being engineered in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
With global data privacy concerns rising by a staggering 42% year-on-year, multinational corporations are no longer comfortable with fragmented security protocols. The new mandate for late 2025 is centralization.
According to industry insiders and the recent EY India GCC Pulse Survey 2025, there is a frantic rush to establish dedicated Cybersecurity Centres of Excellence (CoEs) within Indian Global Capability Centers (GCCs). The goal is to transform Indian offices from “execution hubs” into global “Risk Command Centers.”
The Trigger: The “42%” Panic
Why the sudden urgency? The landscape of threat has shifted.
The rise of Agentic AI and Quantum-based decryption threats has rendered traditional, perimeter-based security obsolete. The data is clear:
- Privacy Anxiety: Concerns around data privacy and compliance compliance have surged to 42% in 2025 (up from 32% last year), driven by stricter enforcement of India’s DPDP Act and the EU’s AI Act.
- Attack Volume: India alone saw 4.26 billion cyberattacks blocked in H1 2025 (Indusface Report), proving that the battlefield is active.
“We cannot manage global risk with local teams anymore. We need a central nervous system that sees everything, 24/7. That system is being built in India,” says the CISO of a Fortune 500 financial services firm that recently inaugurated its Cyber CoE in Pune.
From “IT Support” to “Threat Hunting”
The Cybersecurity CoE is not just an IT helpdesk with a better name. It represents a fundamental upgrade in capability.
While only 7% of GCCs currently have a fully embedded CoE, this number is projected to triple by 2026. These new centers are tasked with high-end mandates:
- AI Governance: Auditing internal AI agents to ensure they don’t leak trade secrets (a growing risk in 2025).
- Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM): Monitoring the entire vendor ecosystem. The monitoring of third-party data access has already jumped from 44% to 60% this year.
- Quantum Readiness: Preparing encryption standards for the post-quantum era, a niche skill set where India holds a talent advantage.
Why India? The “Talent + Trust” Equation
The move to India is driven by the “Cyber-Talent Gap.” The world is short of 3.4 million cybersecurity professionals, and India is the only geography producing them at scale.
But in 2025, it is also about Trust. With the Indian government’s robust digital infrastructure (like the National Cyber Coordination Centre), global firms view India as a mature jurisdiction for handling sensitive security operations.
The Outlook for 2026
For Indian tech professionals, this CoE boom is creating a new elite career path. The demand is shifting from “Security Analysts” to “Threat Architects” and “Forensic Data Scientists.”
As we move into 2026, the message is clear: If you are a global firm, you don’t just need a “back office” in India; you need a “bunker.” And you need to build it now.