NEW DELHI: Chinese malware has the ability to bring down India’s military network and disrupt the army’s communication, according to a recent report. A report on future core technologies and problem statements claims that Chinese hackers can compromise Indian communication network and can disrupt correspondence during operations.
Not only that, the report claims that Chinese malware has the ability to steal sensitive information during peacetime. “War plans would be protected by hundreds of firewalls but there are enough sensitive documents that can be stolen,” said former Indian Air Force chief Fali Major.
“The attackers can crash your systems and corrupt your data by gaining full control of computers.” The report states that the problem is compounded with the fact that a large amount of the equipment that the Indian army uses is imported, hence the chance of an embedded spyware or virus is always present.
“This has been compounded by the fact that origin of a large amount of electronic circuitry being used in communication equipment is of Chinese origin,” claims the report, put together by the Army Design Bureau. A cyber security expert by the name of Rakshit Tandon also warned that the military was susceptible to Chinese hackers and stated that the matter should be treated seriously. He called for stringent testing methods for hardware and software equipment so as to remain safe from Chinese cyber attacks. “Even the US is deeply worried about systems being infected with Chinese malware,” said Tandon.
