Amidst speculation over where the major data leak pertaining to India’s Scorpene-class submarines occurred, Indian Navy has clarified, “It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India.” “A case of suspected leak of documents related to Scorpene submarines has been reported by a foreign media house. The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists,” the Indian Navy added.
According to a report in The Australian, France’s DCNS, which is making six Scorpene-class submarines for the Indian Navy, suffered a major data leak. The report suggests that the data leak happened in France in 2011. xcerpts published in redacted form on the newspaper’s website contained highly sensitive details of the submarine including technical manuals and models of the boat’s antennae.
Also read: Scorpene data leak: Security implications and why ‘Make in India’ becomes even more important
Under Project 75, Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) and DCNS are in collaboration making the Scorpene submarines, the first of which may be inducted in the Indian Navy by the end of this year. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that the Indian Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba has been asked to analyse the nature of the Scorpene submarines data leak. The Navy Chief has been asked to analyse as to what exactly has been leaked,” Parrikar told reporters today. “This came to my knowledge at 12 midnight. It looks like a case of hacking,” Parrikar said, adding that the, “first step is to identify if it is related to us.”
