A virtual war on terror

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Monday , May 05, 2008 at 2004 hrs The bad guys are at it again and with increasing ferocity, attacking anything and everything. So far, Chinese hackers have been constantly waging an all-out warfare against the government and defence networks of western countries, the US in particular. Be it in terms of volume, proficiency or sophistication, the conflict has reached the level of a campaign-style, force-on-force engagement. The motives of Chinese hackers include technology theft, intelligence gathering and the creation of dormant presences in the computer networks for future action.

The recent attacks from China have brought the ugly face of cyber terrorism out in open and have opened a Pandora box of questions. Online warfare and our defence capabilities in the virtual world have suddenly come into limelight.

Chinese hackers broke into the computer network of the ministry of external affairs (MEA) recently, prompting the government to think about fortifying the system. Fortunately, no sensitive information was accessed during the hacking, which was detected during regular checks by the intelligence agencies. “The hackers attempted to hack in, but were not successful,” says BN Shetty, head of the informatics division at the ministry of external affairs.

Though the government does not specifically know who the hackers were, the IP addresses left behind suggested Chinese involvement. The next obvious question is what is the real motive. Were the hackers trying to sniff into the Tibet policy-related data in the MEA servers? Without disturbing anything they quietly came and left. But, what were the hackers looking for?

Initially, the government was not forthright in mentioning the name of China into the hacking incidents but there were oblique hints. It sought to play down the development, saying it was an ongoing effort by hackers from China, Europe or countries elsewhere to break into the computer networks of ministry of external affairs.

However, this is not the first time that hackers have attempted to break into the computer networks of various ministries and military establishments. For quite some time now, hackers have been trying to hack into sensitive information, such as military data and also emails of key government personnel here. According to National Informatics Centre (NIC) officials, they have been getting reports regarding this and are doing everything to secure the system.