Google opens Asia Pacific (APAC’s) first safety centre in Hyderabad; to tackle AI fraud, cybercrime; CM Revanth Reddy hails Telangana’s tech rise

HYDERABAD: Tech giant Google unveiled its first safety engineering centre (GSEC) in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and its fourth globally after Munich, Dublin, and Malaga (Spain), in Hyderabad on Wednesday.GSEC India is housed within what is Google's largest base outside the US and was also its first port of call in India in 2004.

An official statement said GSEC India will not only address the rapidly evolving threat landscape of India, which faces projected cybercrime losses of up to Rs 20,000 crore by 2025, but will also serve as a global hub of safety innovation driven by a combination of AI-powered threat detection, ecosystem collaboration, and policy measures.Heather Adkins, vice president of engineering, Google Security, said GSEC India will serve as a global lighthouse for their digital safety and security efforts. She said Google has been investing in security and safety teams in Hyderabad over the years and will be looking at investing in hiring the best talent for the centre, which is learnt to have started with around 200-250 engineers. Pivotal moment in T's journey as cybersecurity hub: Revanth The centre will primarily focus on keeping end users safe from online fraud and scams, strengthening cybersecurity for govt and enterprise infrastructure, and building artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly.

It will deploy advanced AI and large language models (LLMs) to power real-time scam alerts on Android, strengthen Google Play Protect, and enhance fraud detection.GSEC India will also tackle AI-driven deception through adversarial testing, AI-assisted red teaming, and tools like SynthID to watermark AI-generated content while focusing on ecosystem collaboration and intelligence sharing through platforms like the Global Signals Exchange (GSE).

It will also advance research in areas like Post-Quantum Cryptography through partnerships with academia.Flagging off the facility, chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the first-of-its-kind centre in the Asia-Pacific marks a pivotal moment in Telangana's journey as a global cybersecurity innovation hub."Google and Hyderabad are old friends... Google today has nearly 7,000 Googlers who call Hyderabad their home," he said, pointing out that the new centre affirms Hyderabad's crucial role in developing privacy, safety, and cyber-defence solutions and will attract top-tier safety engineering talent to the state.

He said the Telangana govt was focused on growing to a $1 trillion economy by 2035 and a $3 trillion economy by 2047.

"Our population is 2.5% of India's population but contributes 5% to its GDP. By 2047 we want to contribute 10% to India's GDP."IT and industries minister D Sridhar Babu said GSEC India demonstrates the power of public-private partnerships in building a secure digital infrastructure and will serve as a catalyst for innovation in areas critical to India's vision of becoming a global tech leader.