By Ajit K Dubey
The US and Soviet Union had their Cold War from the mid-to-late 20th century, and now, many years later, India now finds itself fighting a Cold Code War with its nosy neighbours China and Pakistan.
In a bid to enhance its combat capabilities in the virtual domain, the defence ministry is working towards establishing a new cyber agency to tackle attempts by Chinese and Pakistani hackers to break into its systems and networks.
'The tri-services integrated defence staff (IDS) is coming up with a unit to tackle the cyber warfare domain and it will be staffed with personnel from all the three services,' senior government sources told Mail Today.
The head of the unit will report to the chief of integrated defence staff Lt Gen Satish Dua (pictured) who heads the organisation at present
The IDS is a tri-services organisation that works directly under the defence ministry but has officers and men from the army, navy as well as air force, and is responsible for tasks and projects involving the assets and men from all three services.
'The forces have already started pooling their resources in the cyber domain under the new agency, which would be headed by a major general-rank officer.
'The organisation will have both offensive and defensive capabilities in cyber warfare,' said the sources.
The development comes against the backdrop of around 22,000 pages of data purportedly related to submarines that a French government-owned company was building for the Indian navy being leaked to the media last year.
The organisation will have both offensive and defensive capabilities in cyber warfare
There have been thousands of online attacks on various government websites and systems including defence-related ones in recent years, with fingers often pointing towards China and Pakistan.
Until recently the army, navy and air force have their own separate cells dealing with cyber issues and they have also developed individual networks for safe communication and data exchange.
The information networks created by the forces are state of the art and are capable of detecting any violation at centralised locations within a few microseconds.
'If anybody puts in a pen drive in a computer of the military network, our men sitting in Delhi and other centralised locations can detect it within no time and prevent any leakage or attack immediately,' said the sources.
'This step of creating a new cyber agency, which would be a precursor to a cyber command, is in the right direction.
'Now the focus should be on creating infrastructure for manufacturing totally indigenous information and communication technology equipment,' said information warfare expert Pavithran Rajan.
There have been thousands of online attacks on various government websites and systems including defence-related ones in recent years
To test its capabilities, the new agency has also carried out its first cyber warfare exercise under which Indian forces carried out attacks on their own networks to check for loopholes and steps required to strengthen the system, the sources informed.
'The forces deduced that cyber should be the first agency to be raised for dealing with the increasing instances of attacks on military networks and systems,' they said.
The command of the new agency would be on rotational basis for the three services, which means that if it is first headed by an army officer, he would be succeeded by navy and air force officers.
The head of the unit would report to the chief of integrated defence staff Lt Gen Satish Dua who heads the organisation at present.
The information networks created by the forces are state of the art and are capable of detecting any violation at centralised locations within a few microseconds
The government had deferred the demand for creation of new commands for cyber, special forces and space under senior lieutenant general rank officers and asked the forces to first create capabilities for such commands.
The decision to put off the creation of new commands was taken soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told senior military commanders that while global powers were reducing the number of their personnel, Indian forces were continuously demanding expansion in size.
The armed forces had initiated the demand for creation of three new commands during the UPA government where the three services had decided to take one command each for themselves, setting up three army commander- equivalent positions.
The country has only two operational tri-services commands including the strategically located Andaman and Nicobar command in Port Blair, which will now likely have an officer from the navy as its head permanently.
The other tri-services organisation is the strategic forces command, which looks after the nuclear arsenal including the Agni-series missiles for the nuclear command authority headed by the Prime Minister.
The government is now considering a four-star officer appointment in the form of permanent chairman for the chiefs of staff committee.
All tri-services issues are expected to go to him once the office is created.
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IAF to get hack-proof laptops to prevent online espionage
After relentless attacks by Chinese and Pakistani hackers to break into military personnel's computers, the Indian Air Force is planning to provide hack-proof laptops to its personnel which would help them prevent cases of cyber espionage.
The IAF is taking this step after it was observed that personal computers or laptops used for surfing internet and official assignments, are getting hacked by outsiders as it is relatively very easy to break into such systems.
'The IAF is planning to provide laptops to its personnel for official work which will be internet-disabled to do away with the scope of getting cyber-attacked,' sources told Mail Today.
The Indian Air Force is planning to provide hack-proof laptops to its personnel which would help them prevent cases of cyber espionage
The laptops would be connected with the Air Force Network (AFNET) which is used for exchange of data and information across the country for which it has laid down a special optical fibre network, they said.
The IAF is moving ahead with this plan at a time when there have been cases where personal computers of officers have been hacked and official information has also been stolen from them.
'All IAF personnel have been told that they should be careful when they are using internet on personal system…they would be taken to task if any official document or information is leaked or stolen in the process.
'They should not use personal laptops for official work or for storing any work-related data,' the sources said.
It would be difficult for the personnel to use the laptops when on leave as the system would connect with the AFNET which works only inside or near air force bases.
The Air Force has been taking a number of steps to prevent hackers from stealing classified information and has been the first among the services to arm its personnel with smartphones to protect them from offensives.
These are special smart phones that the IAF is in the process of providing to all its 1.75 lakh personnel, which are hack-proof as they too, can be used only with AFNET.
The phones are equipped with facilities of video calling, but it does not have any other apps like other general smartphones.
The phones also provide end-to-end connectivity at all times and at all air bases -from the world's highest battlefield Siachen Glacier to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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