Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Cyber warfare - India should be prepared

The country must develop both offensive and defensive capabilities to thwart adversaries

Brigadier Rumel Dahiya

Advisor, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

China’s policy is to have Cyber warfare capability, both defensive and offensive. Some of the actions are government-controlled, people are employed to infiltrate into the Cyber and communication network of the adversaries and competitors. It is done at a critical moment, when decision making process, both civil and military, is in its final stage. It is supposed to neutralise or incapacitate the adversary. The infiltration is carried out to know the planning, decision making and also to create confusion by inserting messages or pointers which will put every one in the wrong direction.

If a mobile SIM card is cloned or a mobile phone is hacked by the terrorists, these guys can disturb the internal security of any country. Let’s say the cloned SIM card belongs to a security agency or a security official involved in VIP movement. With this SIM, one can easily get to know the VIP movement along with the information like which VIP is moving, what is his destination, with how many people he is travelling and what are the security arrangements for the VIP. It can also lead to the compromise of a political decision and if an adversary or enemy of the country already knows the reaction of our government, he can manipulate it either in his favour or can use it to dent the image of our country. In security parlance, it should be understood that minor details complete the picture. Let’s say if Maoists get to know about the movement of security forces who are launching an operation, they can vacate the location and thus waste the complete effort and demoralise the force. If even one issue to be taken up with a foreign dignitary is revealed, it can lead to derailment of a bilateral process of engagement. It is left to the imagination of the perpetrator that to what extent he can cause damage. Every military operation is critically dependent on its secrecy and surprise. If it’s known to the enemy through hacking or cloning, it can decide the course of a war.

It is also known that manufacturers place a bug or a chip in equipment they export to other countries. Most countries, while selling advanced weapon systems which can be combat, reconnaissance, missile system, communication systems and the radar, do this. The electronic source coding of the above are denied and they may retain a certain amount of control to know how and where it is being used. Such critical information or codes can also be used to disable the system at a critical time. Talking of a way out, if we have to resolve these problems once and for all, there can be no alternative to indigenisation and self-reliance in systems and particularly in electronic systems. On the issue of China sharing the ‘Key Numbers’ of the SIM cards with our enemy countries or terrorist groups, the idea appears a little far-fetched. It will hugely hamper the economic credibility of the country and will make the world wary to the extent of denting the economy of the country. Hence, nobody would dare to do it so wantonly.
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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2009


An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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