Indian Defense Personnel Under Threat of Foreign Intelligence Cyberattacks

Indian defense personnel continue to be targets of foreign intelligence espionage efforts or agents, the country's Defense Ministry said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — India’s Defense Ministry warned its personnel that they might become targets of foreign spy agency web attacks, the Times of India reported on Monday.

"Defense personnel, especially those serving in lower formations, privy to sensitive information relating to organization/matters pertaining to the armed forces continue to be targets of foreign intelligence espionage efforts/agents," the newspaper quoted a Defense Ministry directive, issued earlier in March.

There have been cases of data leaks through pen-drives, portable hard drives and CDs, the International Business Times quoted an anonymous defense official as saying. The official added that China had hacker brigades undertaking cyberattacks.

The ministry’s directive explains the need to strictly control digital storage device use and the implementation of firewalls by personnel. It also expressed concern over the use of photocopying machines, among other issues.

Earlier this month US-based IT firm FireEye stated that a two-year research project showed a Pakistani cybersecurity company stole classified information from India.

The head of Russia's InfoWatch cybersecurity company said that India would likely experience further data leaks in the near future due to increasing use of digital data by the government.