Cyber warfare against India exposed by Police

There was a time when the world was shaken due to loud bombings. The sound instilled fear in the hearts of the people. However, the times have changed and with it the character of warfare has transformed majorly. It was once heard that the future of warfare will be in cyberspace, but the recent incidents suggest that the time has arrived.

Let me ask you a question. What makes more sense? Fighting a battle that costs a huge sum and has immense bloodshed, or to simply cripple the enemy into submission? Without wasting a second, the response would be the non-violent way of warfare. This is the reason behind widespread acceptance of cyber warfare.

India has faced several cross border challenges due to its hostile neighbourhood, but the face of the threat has changed with time. Today’s soldiers are not the ones fighting on ground but the ones who while sitting in front of a computer screen, can encroach the foe’s institutions, power grids and what not. The warfare has shifted to blowing off the satellite services of a nation and initiating a free fall of the economy. And India has become a victim of such attacks.

Cyber warfare against India exposed by Police

The Ahmedabad Police, in an important revelation has said that the Malaysian and Indonesian hackers are targeting India. In the aftermath of Nupur Sharma’s controversial remarks regarding Prophet Mohammad, hacker groups from different countries launched “cyber warfare” against India, by attacking government and private websites and databases, claimed the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell.

According to Amit Vasava, DCP, Cybercrime, two hacker groups ‘Dragon Force Malaysia’ and ‘Hacktivist Indonesia’ launched a cyber war against India.

As per DCP, Cyber crime, “Over 2,000 websites were hacked by hacker groups. Ahmedabad cybercrime has written to Malaysian and Indonesian governments along with writing to Interpol for lookout notice for both groups.”

The websites hacked include every kind of websites; ranging from government to educational to businesses. The cybercell even claimed that confidential data has been leaked from the websites, which includes details like government files, addhar card details, pan card and passport details of some citizens.

Cyber attack over Nupur Sharma’s remarks

According to this investigation, former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s details, along with address, email id, contact number were hacked and leaked from the government websites.

Prior to this, hackers have targeted government websites to ‘avenge’ Nupur Sharma’s comments. Earlier in June, it was reported that Dragon Force had launched an attack called OpsPatuk or “strike back’ against India. Then, a Bengaluru based cyber security firm, CloudSEK, discovered a tweet calling for attacks on government websites.

Not only this, the Muslim hackers around the world were appealed to join the “mission”.

Also Read- Indian Armed forces are facing cyber-attacks from China, Pakistan with increasing frequency

India and Cyberattack

The experts in the field predict that the intensity, as well as the volume of such attacks is going to rise exponentially. With the ever-increasing presence of individuals in the online world, it has become even more convenient.

India has been experiencing terror attacks for a very long time and with time the terrorists are also becoming tech savvy. India needs to significantly up its game in cyber warfare. Without immediate upgrade, India will stand at a disadvantage in fighting any such future conflicts.

Though India has taken a major step in this direction by the establishment of Defence Cyber Agency but there is still a lot to be done. Hence, the time has come for India to keep its focus on tanks but equipping its forces with cyber warfare technologies as well. India needs a counter-terrorism policy against cyber jihadis, but it better be soon because time waits for no-one.