Nine years ago, the Akancha Srivastava Foundation began with a clear purpose: to make cyber safety education accessible, practical, and people-focused. What started as a mission to create awareness has grown into one of India’s largest social impact initiatives dedicated to cyber safety, prevention, victim support, and responsible digital behaviour.

This journey has been built with people, for people, and because of people.

Over the past nine years, we have travelled across India, worked with schools, colleges, parents, students, communities, government institutions, law enforcement agencies, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, educators, and citizens from different walks of life. Every workshop, every conversation, every call for help, and every moment of trust has shaped the work of the Foundation.

Our deepest gratitude goes to the victims and families who trusted us during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Many came to us with fear, confusion, shame, trauma, financial loss, online abuse, blackmail, harassment, identity misuse, fraud, and deep emotional distress. They believed that we would listen without judgment, guide them responsibly, and help them understand what could be done next. Their courage strengthened our resolve. Their trust reminded us why prevention, early reporting, evidence preservation, and compassionate victim support must remain central to cyber safety.

We thank every child who raised a hand during a workshop and asked a question that many adults were afraid to ask. We thank every parent who stayed back after a session to discuss a concern about their child’s online life. We thank every teacher who understood that cyber safety is now part of student wellbeing. We also carry with deep gratitude the love we have received from children, educators, and elderly citizens across India. Their warmth, trust, questions, and blessings have made this journey deeply meaningful for us.

We are deeply grateful to the Indian Police across states who welcomed us with openness, respect, and a shared commitment to public safety. Their willingness to engage, exchange knowledge, invite us to their regions, and collaborate on cybercrime prevention gave us a rare and powerful understanding of India’s digital realities. Through these engagements, we saw the diversity of India up close: different languages, different social contexts, different crime patterns, different vulnerabilities, and different levels of digital exposure. Each region taught us something valuable. Each interaction made our work sharper, more grounded, and more useful.

Our work with police personnel, IPS officers, enforcement teams, and institutions has been one of the strongest pillars of this journey. We have had the privilege of sharing knowledge, learning from field realities, understanding emerging crime patterns, and contributing to a prevention-led approach to cyber safety. These experiences helped us grow from an awareness initiative into a structured public safety movement.

The Akancha Srivastava Foundation has conducted more than 2,000 workshops, reached more than 515 million people digitally, collaborated with over 100 IPS officers, worked across 42 cities, and built an AI-enabled cyber safety chat helpline to support citizens seeking guidance. This support has now moved to email. These numbers matter because each number represents a person, a family, a school, a workplace, a police team, or a community that chose to engage with cyber safety before harm became irreversible.

Cybercrime has changed dramatically over the last nine years. Online abuse, grooming, financial fraud, impersonation, cyberbullying, sextortion, identity theft, misinformation, image misuse, screen-sharing scams, OTP fraud, gaming-related exploitation, and social engineering have become part of everyday digital risk. Technology has become deeply embedded in how people study, work, bank, communicate, build relationships, and access services. This makes cyber safety a public safety discipline, a life skill, and an institutional responsibility.

The Foundation’s approach has always been rooted in prevention. We believe people must be equipped before they are harmed. Children must understand boundaries, privacy, reporting, and safe online behaviour early. Parents must know how to respond without panic or blame. Teachers must be able to identify red flags. Organizations must train employees against social engineering and digital fraud. Citizens must know how to preserve evidence, report incidents, and seek timely help.

We are also grateful to the organizations that invited us into their ecosystems and recognised the value of cyber safety as a core institutional priority. Their praise for our work in strengthening employee awareness, reporting discipline, fraud prevention, and internal preparedness has reinforced our belief that cyber safety is now essential to organizational resilience and trust.

Our journey has also been shaped by the belief that cyber safety cannot remain restricted to technical experts. It must reach classrooms, homes, police stations, workplaces, communities, and public platforms. It must be explained in language people understand. It must be practical, accessible, and rooted in real cases. It must respect the emotional burden carried by victims. It must help people act with clarity.

Over nine years, we have learned that awareness is strongest when it is delivered with empathy and responsibility. A victim of cybercrime needs guidance, not blame. A child facing online abuse needs safety, not shame. A parent facing digital confusion needs clarity, not fear. A police team handling complex cyber complaints needs continuous knowledge exchange. An organization facing digital risk needs behavioural preparedness, not superficial compliance.

We thank our advisors, mentors, partners, volunteers, educators, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, government agencies, students, parents, institutions, and every supporter who helped us build this movement. We thank everyone who opened doors for us, invited us to speak, connected us with communities, shared our resources, amplified our campaigns, and believed that cyber safety deserves urgent national attention.

Nine years have given us scale, experience, credibility, and responsibility. They have also given us humility. India’s digital landscape is vast, complex, and constantly evolving. Every new platform, every new fraud pattern, every new form of online harm reminds us that our work must continue with discipline, compassion, and focus.

As we complete nine years of the Akancha Srivastava Foundation, we carry forward the same purpose with deeper conviction. We remain committed to protecting children, supporting victims, strengthening institutions, working with law enforcement, empowering citizens, and making cyber safety a culture of prevention.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Thank you for trusting us.

Thank you for helping us build a safer digital world.

Stay Aware, Stay Safe. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat

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Every day, India is under attack from misinformation, divisive propaganda, targeted harassment, hate speech, and coordinated online abuse. These threats may not cross physical borders, but they aim to weaken our unity, dignity, and democracy from within.

We need digital warriors, responsible, informed, and fearless netizens who will stand guard over the truth and protect the integrity of our nation online. This is not the job of a few; it is the duty of every citizen who values freedom and justice.

Being a digital warrior means:

• Verifying facts before sharing anything.
• Refusing to amplify hate, lies, or inflammatory content.
• Reporting accounts and content that target individuals, spread communal disharmony, or threaten national security.
• Supporting and defending those who are harassed or bullied online.
• Using social media to spread accurate information and positive change.

Here’s what  else you can do. Right now.

• Sit your child down. Speak to them about grooming, digital consent, and cyberbullying. Not once. Regularly.
• Never share personal documents, OTPs, or photos with anyone online. No matter how “official” they sound.
• Watch for signs of trauma, withdrawal, anxiety in your loved ones. Cyber abuse is silent, but the pain is real.
• Report cybercrime immediately on cybercrime.gov.in. File that FIR. Push the system. You are protected by law.
• Stop forwarding messages blindly. You are not patriotic if you’re spreading hate, fear, and lies.
• Educate your staff, your family, your teams. Everyone with a phone is a potential target.
• Keep your devices updated. Use antivirus, strong passwords, 2FA. These are not technical luxuries—they’re your armour.
• Show courage. When you see abuse online, stand up. Defend someone. Report it. Speak out.

Don’t wait for the next victim to be someone you love. Because then it’s too late.

We must watch each other’s backs, stand up when we see abuse, speak out when we see injustice, and report when we see harm being done. Protecting one another in the online space is as vital as safeguarding our physical borders.

This Independence Day, let us pledge to unite as a strong digital force, driven by truth, respect, and compassion. Our Bharat Mata deserves a safe, respectful, and united online community—and that starts with each of us.

Subscribe to our channel and join the mission to protect India’s soul in the digital era.

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Stay Aware, Stay Safe. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.

CONTACT US:

Website: www.AkanchaSrivastava.Org

Email: TeamAkancha@gmail.com

Twitter: @AkanchaS

https://twitter.com/AkanchaS

Instagram: @akanchas

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Facebook:

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LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/akanchasrivastava/

ABOUT ‘AKANCHA SRIVASTAVA FOUNDATION’

The Akancha Srivastava Foundation is India’s leading social impact initiative dedicated to advancing cyber safety awareness and education. Established in February 2017, this not-for-profit Section 8 organization is a trusted voice in promoting safe online practices across the nation.

Distinguished Board of Advisors
Guided by an honorary advisory board of esteemed leaders:

• Former Special DGP RK Vij (Chhattisgarh Police)
• ADG Navniet Sekera (Uttar Pradesh Police)
• ADG Krishna Prakash (Maharashtra Police)
• Dr. Poonam Verma (Principal, SSCBS, Delhi University)

Our Mission

The Foundation is committed to educating, empowering, and building bridges between the public and authorities on critical cyber safety issues. Additionally, we specialize in forensics training for law enforcement, equipping them with the skills needed to tackle cybercrime effectively.

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(Blog by our Founder)

Aptitude Over Attitude: What Truly Matters in Cyber Security

I was asked a curious question at the CISO6 Cyber Security Excellence Awards: “Do men still compete with you in the field of cyber security?”
It made me pause. Not because I was surprised, but because we are in mid-2025 and this question still reflects outdated perceptions.

My answer was clear. If someone is competing with me on knowledge, I welcome it. In fact, I would go one step further and reach out to that individual, ask questions, learn, and grow. That’s the true spirit of excellence. But if someone approaches with a poor attitude or a misplaced sense of superiority, that stance is often short-lived. Because once I begin to speak, any arrogance tends to give way to humility. That is what aptitude does. It levels the field.

We must move beyond gender-led biases. The future of cyber security, or any field for that matter, must be rooted in capability. Skill, discipline, and performance should be our only metrics. The rest is noise. When we sit across the table, engage in critical national work, or solve deeply sensitive digital crimes, no one stops to ask what gender you belong to. They only care about your ability to deliver.

Over the years, I have been deeply privileged to work with some of the most complex challenges in India. I have trained police forces in naxal and terrorism-affected areas. I have conducted workshops with the Indian Army and assisted law enforcement across the country in tackling forensic cybercrime. The reality is that few people, regardless of gender, have had the kind of exposure or ground experience I have had. That’s not arrogance, it’s a fact built on years of hard, silent work.

So when I walk into a room, I do not walk in hoping to be accepted. I walk in to share, to build, to empower. And more often than not, I am met with respect. Sometimes even awe. That’s the power of deep preparation and consistent delivery. Not gender. Not titles. Just sheer knowledge.

And yes, I was also awarded the CISO6 Cyber Security Excellence recognition!

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