Indian Defense Forces on Red Alert After Chinese Cyber Attack

A red alert has been issued in the Indian Defense Forces following a cyber attack from the Chinese Military's Western Headquarters.

India has issued a red alert against cyber attacks for the second time in three months due to an attack on government and commercial organizations by Chinese Military Western Headquarters.

The alert has been issued to the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force that a Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat group called Suckfly, based in Chengdu region, is targeting Indian organizations and the Indian defense establishment is its prime target.

Suckfly is involved in carrying out cyber attacks by sending out a malware known as Nidiran.

This group earlier stole digital files from South Korean firms and is now prying on targets in India.

Suckfly's main goal is to steal the data therefore it might have targeted some top defense personnel.

"It has successfully carried out cyber attacks by computers of both government and commercial establishments. Targeting of military officials cannot be ruled out, keeping in mind the sensitive nature of data being handled by them," a statement from the Indian Army said.

India's defense establishment has been on the Chinese cyber radar since 2012, when Chinese hackers managed to penetrate the systems of the Navy's Visakhapatnam-based Eastern Command. After that a draft proposal for setting up a Tri Service Cyber Command was prepared but it is yet to see the light of day. Presently all three services have their own space and cyber cell so it was decided that there was a need for a unified command and command structure to deal with the cyber threat in a unified manner.