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Digital Communities
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India Takes U.S. Help to Improve Cyber Security
July 27, 2011 By Indrajit Basu
Alarm bells have been ringing in India for a while now -- ever since December 2009 in fact -- when that country discovered that Chinese hackers had launched an aggressive offensive on computer systems owned by the Indian government and the Dalai Lama.
But after three years of self-denial, while India tried in vain to thwart the cyber onslaught on its IT systems, a rattled Indian government is now rushing to the expertise of the U.S. to shield its cyber assets.
Last week, India and the U.S. inked a pact on cyber security to intensify information exchange on threats to computers and networks and initiate joint work on technologies against cyber-attacks.
The pact followed consultations led by the Indian and the U.S. National Security Councils on prospects for bilateral co-operation on cyber security issues, said a joint statement on the India-U.S. strategic dialogue.
The Indian CERT also admitted that cyber security-related threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Indeed, cyber espionage is seen as a threat equal in some respects to terrorism.
“Strangely, while India has the largest number of software engineers in the world, for some reason India can’t seem to get its cyber security together,” says Greg Walton, an independent cyber security expert who has advised the Indian government in the past on security issues.
Walton was one of the team members of a 10-month long investigation in 2009 that discovered massive espionage operations directed against Indian government computers.
“India is coming to the realization that cyber espionage in India is much worse than what was thought,” adds Walton.
For instance, according to latest CERT statistics, in May 2011 alone, Indian government systems confronted 151 computer security-related attacks of which more than half involved “phishing” -- or an intrusion that involves some form of identity theft.
The volatility of Indian cyber space can also be gauged from another incident early last year, when Indian CERT reported over 2,000 defacements of government sites in the first three months of the year.
To make matters worse, there have also been reports of cyber intruders descending on the IT establishments of sensitive government departments, such as the defence ministry and various Indian missions around the world, pilfering classified and restricted documents.
Though spoken in whispers, security analysts predictably feel that pranksters from neighboring countries, specifically China and Pakistan, are behind the recent incidents. However, some argue that although the majority of the attacks emerge from China-based servers, it does not necessarily mean they come from China per se.
Still, according to a research conducted by the Canada-based Information Warfare Monitor, the nature of the attacks and the types of data targeted point to China.
Software security firms -- like McAfee -- say India is under-prepared. The country not only has the lowest rate of security measures for its infrastructure, it is also an easy target legally.
For instance The Indian IT Act and related local laws are primarily oriented to addressing fraud and copyright violations; but they are not security oriented.
Moreover, “while government and specific agencies [in India] have woken up to the cyber security threats sometime back, the corporate sector hasn’t,” says Walton.
Small wonder then that the scientific adviser to the defence minister feels India is increasingly vulnerable. Convergence of technologies are posing a major challenge to cyber saecurity as well as evolving threats for the government’s network-centric systems.
Consequently, seeking foreign help becomes a necessity, feels the Indian CERT.
India also has cyber security pacts, primarily for the exchange of information, with Japan, Korea and Finland, says CERT.
Technology may the one of the greatest enablers of good things in life, but even until recently, it was mainly a phenomenon that benefited the more resourceful section of the world. That's changing though. Thanks to its constant evolution in the last few years, technology, particularly digital technologies, have ceased to be the privilege of a select few. From a hungry child in Niger, to the downtrodden lavatory cleaner in India, to the lonely billionaire widower living in a swanky Manhattan apartment, digital technologies are radically changing the lives of all these days.
As an international correspondent for Digital Communities, I have covered the power that ICT wields, particularly over the inhabitants of the developing world. But often a 1200-word feature does not bring forth the magic of ICT fast enough. My endeavor in this space would be to do just that; highlight some notable ICT-related developments as fast as I can.
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