WNS Cares Foundation Awards Global Winners of “Cyber Sword”, a Cyber-Security Awareness Competition

MUMBAI, INDIA, Feb, 2018: WNS Cares Foundation (WCF), CSR arm of WNS Global Services, today felicitated the global winners of “Cyber Sword”, a cyber-security campaign as part of its annual global CSR event, Global Impact Day (GID). Four global students emerged as the global winners in the final round, declared as Cyber Sword Champion for GID – 2017-2018. Multiple levels of competitions were held in 209 schools across 7 countries like Romania, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, USA including India in order to create awareness around secure internet usage. A total of 1,00,000 children, youth and teachers were reached out to through a series of videos and multi-media presentations.

Announcing the global winners, Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS, said “With an estimated 100 million children in India alone, expected to access the internet by this year, there is an acute need to improve cyber security awareness in children and young adults. Internet if not deployed effectively can be a bane for the society and children form the weakest link of this chain. We have received whole hearted support for our CSR initiative and would look at extending this training to non WCF-run schools as well in future. I laud the efforts undertaken by WNS volunteers, WCF teachers and all support staff to successfully undertake this mammoth activity across 209 schools educating 88,000 children and the winners who displayed commitment to learning with the vow to use Internet to their best advantage.”    

Cyber Sword entailed children studying in WCF run schools undergo awareness on the dangers in cyberspace, preventive measures, warning signs, and the course of action to be taken should they fall victim to cybercrime by trained WNS volunteers and teachers over a period of 3 months. The training included a series of videos, infographics, educational talks and information flyers which were made in multiple Indian and international languages. The competition was divided in age appropriate, four groups: Group A included students across Class 1 to Class 3; Group B: Class 4 & Class 5 videos; Group C: Class 6 & Class 7 and Group D: Class 8 & Class 9.  Post the training, the children were given 10-15 simple multiple choice questions to answer correctly. The competition was undertaken at multiple levels: school, region, country and global and winners across each group were announced.  

WCF plans to partner with NASSCOM Foundation & CII to create awareness with children apart from WCF associated schools. 2 NGO partners, Pratham Infotech Foundation & Palvi Education trust are already extending this awareness in non-WCF associated schools (approximately 30,000 children from schools & communities).

WCF (WNS Cares Foundation) organizes Global Impact Day (GID), each year that celebrates the impact created by WNS. A single theme is identified every year whereby students across all WCF run schools around the globe undergo focused three months training on the chosen subject or theme and are subsequently adjudged basis school level, regional, national and international competitions.

List of Winners:

Global Winners

• Group A – Anuj Pal- grade 2 from Pune
• Group B - Negriala Maria – Grade 5 from Romania
• Group C - Chirita Matei – Grade 6 from Romania
• Group D – Nammi Mouli – Grade 9 from Vizag

India Winners

• Group A – Anuj Pal- grade 2-mobile library – Pune
• Group B – Sashat S – Grade 5 from Gurgaon
• Group C - Shivani Shirsagar – Grade 6 from Navi Mumbai
• Group D – Nammi Mouli – Grade 9 from Vizag