India's IT major Wipro Ltd is planning to expand its presence in Australia's Victoria state by establishing a 1.5 million dollar state-of-the-art cyber defence center.

The new centre in South Melbourne will offer protection from cyber-attacks to the organizations and will generate 100 new tech jobs for locals. The center will also offer internship opportunities for the university graduates pursuing a career in cyber security in the country.

Minister for Economic Development Tim Pallas, commented on the news, "Melbourne is Australia's leading tech city and we welcome this reinvestment by Wipro – one of India's top tech companies," 

According to Wipro Senior Vice President Raja Ukil, "The launch of the centre in Melbourne showcases Wipro's commitment to leverage local talent and specialised expertise to cater to the cyber security needs of the region."

The move has been described as another step to further deepen the investment relationship between India and Victoria as per the state government's 10-year 'India Strategy – our Shared Future'.

The IT major already has a partnership with with the Melbourne-based Swineburne University and runs a Wipro-Swinburne Innovation Centre for translational research in the areas of health and smart cities.

Earlier in April, Wipro admitted that it was investigating a phishing attack on its computer systems. The software services company confirmed a report by KrebsOnSecurity on the attack and said it has hired an independent forensics firm to assist with the investigation. The report had said attackers had used Wipro’s employee accounts to target its customers over several months.

As the world gets increasingly online, individuals, companies and governments are becoming hot targets for hackers. Wipro is simply a case in point.

According to a survey by security firm Sophos, earlier this year, in India alone, 76 percent organizations were hit by online attacks in 2018, compared to 68 percent across the globe.