Bharti Jain
ET Bureau
8 Dec 2008
NEW DELHI: Officials in the PMO have been asked not to use google mail for official communication in view of Chinese hackers having broken into the PMO’s internal networking systems recently.
The news of cyber spying on PMO communications by the Chinese comes close on the heels of hackers, also from China, having gained access to the ministry of external affairs’ internal communications network. Similar cyber attacks were also reported at National Informatics Centre (NIC), suspectedly aimed at the National Security Council.
The hackers, by breaking into the communication networks of officialdom, gain access to emails through which officials communicate policy and decisions to other ministries and arms of the government. Mostly found to be mounted from dial-up internet connections in China, at least 3-4 attacks are reported everyday on Indian servers.
The NIC is said to have also traced the IP addresses used to hack into PMO communication networks to China. The hackers had basically targetted email communications using google mail, or Gmail.
Based on the findings, the PMO has sent across instructions to all its officers and staff to desist from using google mail for sending of receiving official communication. The exposure of official communications within the PMO to hackers has raised a question mark on security of cyber systems used by the government for internal confabulations and policy making. Though key communications within the government are encrypted and secure, the Chinese hackers appeared to have exploited the alleged security loopholes and are using programmes and designing software that can decrypt the system and bypass the security systems installed.
The cyber assault has the Indian security agencies worried, as it exposes India’s official networks to constant scanning and mapping by the Chinese. This, experts fear, may arm Beijing with a strategic advantage in the event of a conflict, as hackers would know exactly how to disable the networks or distract them.
The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) under National Security Adviser M K Narayanan is tasked with coordinating with NIC experts to encrypt official communication and firewall networks against hackers. However, the limited resources available restrict the agency from hiring the best IT brains, most of whom are in the private sector, to create fully secure cyber networks that can withstand all attempts at hacking.
It seems the government is simply going by the premise that “prevention is better than cure.” So, rather than devising impregnable cyber defence mechanisms, it is falling back on eliminating the most hacked mail service.
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