India's Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat has said that China can carry out cyberattacks against India and it can create disturbances in the country's large system.
In a virtual program of Delhi's think-tank Vivekananda International Foundation, General Rawat not only compared the cyber capabilities of India and China but also talked about the importance of technology in the defense sector.
General Rawat has spoken of the cyber threat posed by China at a time when there was a blackout in Mumbai in October last year and many circles, it was attributed to the alleged cyberattack from Chinese soil.
On Sunday, an alleged cyber attack is being blamed for the damage done in Iran's Natanz nuclear center. In 2015, Russia's alleged cyberattack was attributed to the power blackout in Ukraine.
On October 12, there was a power failure in Mumbai. The local train, hospital, and every aspect of life had its impact.
The blackout was seen as linked to the India-China border dispute and skirmishes between the troops on the border.
According to the US-based cybersecurity company Recorded Future, a group named "China-connected" Red Echo is behind this cyber attack on India's energy-generating companies and ports.
Christopher Aalberg, CEO of this Boston-based intelligence company, said that the group was tracked for six to eight months last year and later showed that the group was particularly targeting Indian energy stations.
According to Aalberg, when he contacted the Indian officials concerned in those days, the officials took the information but did not proceed with the conversation.
Indian officials are not clear about this.
On the other hand, National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant (Dr) General Rajesh Pant said that he was waiting for the report from Maharashtra about the incident and without him saying anything would be speculation.
He told, "When the report comes to us from the state, then only you will know what is there, because our records are ... the rest are our agencies, according to them, this is not a cyber attack."
China has been denying allegations of cyber attacks.
On the other hand, a knowledgeable source claimed "huge damage" to India in this alleged attack, saying, "You compare this attack with the MRI medical procedure. When you have an MRI, every weakness of your body is seen. Similarly, the hackers must have been aware of the weaknesses of Indian power companies' systems, what devices were used in them, where they were purchased from. "
Sandeep Shukla, professor of computer science and engineering at IIT Kanpur, fears that Chinese malware may still be present in Indian systems.
Malware is software that affects computers. He says, "This malware keeps sending its presence information to its command and control servers that are present there. (And if the malware is still present) then at any time, the command and control server in China can use them. . "
That is, according to experts, how big the danger is and what is its nature, is not known yet.
Professor Shukla says, "China is not doing anything right now because doing so would be like declaring war and it would have diplomatic and other consequences as well."
Experts here, again and again, remind that a third party in the cyber world can also use technology to try to show that the attack has been done on the Chinese side, but to do so, they have to keep the Chinese server under their control Have to do, which is not easy
Comparison of India and China
According to a report by the Belfer Center of the Harvard University of America, China is the second powerful country in the cyber world after America.
According to a statistic, India is among the top five countries in the world, which are most affected by cybercrime.
According to Gulshan Roy, India's first national cybersecurity coordinator till 2015-19 and a distinguished fellow in the think tank ORF, during his tenure, 30-35 percent of cyber attacks were from Chinese land.
According to a report released last year by the think-tank Cyberpiece Foundation, Chinese hackers targeted Indian online shoppers, although the allegations from China were described as 'stupid'.
In the past years, cyber piece foundation chief Vineet Kumar used to attack from China on important basic facilities like railways, oil, and gas, health facilities.
According to him, earlier hackers used to write pro-China slogans on Indian websites, espionage is carried out with the help of silent attacks since 2013-14.
Experts believe that Indian cybersecurity capability lags far behind China, although National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Rajesh Pant claims that "India and China are equal."
In the last years, Vineet Kumar, the head of the Foundation, used to attack China on important basic facilities like railways, oil, and gas, health facilities.
According to him, earlier hackers used to write pro-China slogans on Indian websites, espionage is carried out with the help of silent attacks since 2013-14.
Experts believe that Indian cybersecurity capability lags far behind China, although National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Rajesh Pant claims that "India and China are equal."
In the last years, Vineet Kumar, the head of the Foundation, used to attack China on important basic facilities like railways, oil, and gas, health facilities.
According to him, earlier hackers used to write pro-China slogans on Indian websites, espionage is carried out with the help of silent attacks since 2013-14.
Experts believe that the Indian cybersecurity capability is far behind that of China, although Rajesh Pant claims that "India and China are equal."
Experts believe that while there is an army of cyber experts, hackers in China, India have started working on it for the last few times and the journey is very long.
Professor Sandeep Shukla says that in the last 15 years, China invested so much in adopting research labs, hardware, new talent that it is attacking the cyberinfrastructure of America and other countries.
China has been accused of stealing confidential information from other countries for many years, which China has been rejecting from scratch.
According to Professor Shukla, if we compare it with Indian institutions such as the NCIIPC set up in 2014, ie National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center, then their potential is confined to China.
Defense Cyber Agency was recently launched in the defense sector. Gulshan Rai, India's first National Cyber Security Coordinator, believes that India's defense capabilities have increased over the years.
Lt. Gen. DS Hooda, a cyber affairs expert and former Army commander of the Northern Command, is concerned that at a time when challenges are rising in the cyber world, a clear strategy to address these challenges is lacking.
The last national cybersecurity policy to tackle cyber threats in India came in 2013, but in the last eight years, there have been huge changes like the challenges.
According to Lieutenant General Hooda, there has been talking for a long time on the introduction of a new national cybersecurity policy, but it is not clear when it will come.
He cites the example that due to lack of clear policy, many civil society organizations do not give information about cyberattacks on themselves, because it is not legally necessary for them to do so.
According to Lieutenant General Hooda, it is not clear how the cyber threats coming in the private sector or public sector will be linked to national challenges due to the lack of a clear cyber national policy.
Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat's statement on the cyber capabilities of India and China makes Lt Hooda happy that it has "made a beginning".
He says, "We are already too late. We have a long way to go."
On the other hand, National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant (Dr) General Rajesh Pant hoped that the new National Cyber Policy will come soon.
road ahead
Recently, when there was a big cyber attack in America, it was not only from the American government that it has happened, but Russia was blamed for this.
Russia denied all the allegations. An investigation is going on as to what kind of damage was done in this attack.
But according to critics, when such attacks take place in India, it is usually said on behalf of the Indian authorities that everything is fine.
Lt. General Hooda says, "If you want to find a solution to a problem, then you have to first believe that there is a problem."
According to Lieutenant General Hooda, the only way forward for India is that India should become self-sufficient in the production of critical infrastructure such as routers, switches, safety devices.
This will not be easy for India, as Chinese equipment is used in important sectors like Indian power stations, mobile networks. Similarly, western equipment continues to be used in the defense sector.
In such a situation, Indian companies must be encouraged by giving subsidy-like help.
According to Vineet Kumar, there is a need to quickly identify smart children in India like countries like America and China and provide them an environment so that they can become cyber experts of the future.
Also, a technical cadre should be set up, so that those involved in the cadre know that their future is in the cyber sector and not a person from the non-cyber area should be brought to the cyber area for a limited time, as long as that person If one understands something learns, then it is time for him to go out of that area.
Vineet Kumar says, "We should move away from IITs and NIITs to smaller universities, where many new things are going on. They need to be supported and funded."
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