India needs tools for cyber warfare

Headlines Today Bureau | New Delhi, April 6, 2010 | Updated 18:32 IST
There is nothing to stop China, unless India develops its own tools for cyber warfare, National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the agency principally involved with investigating the depth of the damage caused by Chinese hackers, has warned.
New Delhi and Beijing might be talking peace, but there is a full-blown war being fought in the cyberspace. Headlines Today takes an accurate look at precisely how Chinese hackers targeted Indian computers with their deadly digital arsenal.
China has a staggering $55 million annual budget pumped into the devious science of strategic hacking and India is clearly its undisputed biggest enemy. As the Toronto University's Munk Centre for International Studies report has demonstrated, nothing is sacred to Chinese hackers.
From Indian live fire exercise reports, to admission forms to the National Defence Academy (NDA), from classified army brigade correspondence to assessments of Maoist strength, everything is fair game.
Chinese hackers are known to function as a covert arm of the Chinese navy. And like Pakistani jihadis, the Chinese government can always plausibly deny their existence.
Hacking is institutionalised in China. Virus-writing is taught in Chinese military schools. The art of hacking is very much a part of training imparted to a growing army of about 10,000 cyber soldiers.
The Red Hackers Alliance, the fifth largest hacker group in the world, is known to render services directly to the Chinese government. With the Alliance at its disposal, Beijing stays on the cutting edge of hacking techniques.
The Chinese hacking force uses malware, spyware, key loggers, trojans, bots and malicious code generators to break into Indian computers, copy documents, ex-filtrate sensitive material and bug classified correspondence. Without a dedicated Indian cyber-security organisation, this country will remain a sitting duck.
India needs tools for cyber warfare
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