Information Warfare: India Under Attack

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February 16, 2010:  In the second half of January, the Indian government detected a deliberate hacker attack on nearly 500 PCs used by key government officials. At least 30 of these attacks succeeded. Examination of the attacks indicate that the source was China. The information being sought in the attacks would have been of benefit to China, since several security organizations, involved in dealing with China, were hit. The Indian National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) had earlier set up rapid reaction teams for situations like this, and the teams were essential in containing the latest attack, and identifying the source.

Over the last few years India has been are upgrading their Cyber War capabilities, partly by calling on allies for help. India has become a big customer of Israeli military equipment, and this now includes assistance in protecting themselves from Cyber War threats, especially from Pakistan and China. While Israel has some of the best Internet engineers on the planet, China has a reputation for aggressively and shamelessly using Cyber War techniques for espionage and stealing industrial secrets. India has been subjected to such attacks from China with increasing frequency, and precision, over the last two years. India has a huge pool of Internet engineers and technicians, and this constant Information War activity is leading to the growth of Internet security companies in India. This appears to be backfiring on the Chinese, whose constant Internet based attacks on India, has caused the development of a stronger antidote.