India gets ASEAN to counter World Wide Web of Terror

The perils of radicalisation through cyber world came to light during the terror attack in the heart of Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave in July. India is getting together with ten member countries of ASEAN for the first time to hold a cyber dialogue to counter radicalisation.

Terrorist groups like the self-proclaimed Islamic State have become increasingly sophisticated at creating dense, global networks of support online, networks that are helping these groups run virtual circles around governments and communities. This was highlighted during the Dhaka terror attack where not only one Indian lost a life, another Indian - Islamic Evangelist Zakir Naik- had been instrumental in radicalisation of the young Bangladeshis, who belonged to the elite class of the country.

“We agreed to cooperate towards addressing traditional security challenges, including in areas of de-radicalisation, prevention of violent extremism and cyber crimes. ASEAN leaders looked forward to the convening of the first ASEAN-India dialogue,” sources said. The dialogue will take place in late 2016 in New Delhi. Zakir Naik’s sermons promoting fundamentalist strain of Islam are very popular in Malaysia and Indonesia. India has also launched a probe in the role of Zakir Naik and his organisation; and the probe is being watched closely by these countries.

The internet is playing an increasingly prominent role in radicalisation, extremism and terrorism.  Terrorists use websites as sources of ideological inspiration, to contact each other and for practical purposes, such as finding manuals on how to make explosives. The Islamic State has proven relentless in its violent campaign to rule and has aggressively promoted its hateful message, attracting like-minded extremists.

India has been seeking a concerted effort to counter terrorism and radicalisation at all international platforms. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Laos to attend the ASEAN summit, also tried to impress upon the member states on the threat posed by terrorism.

The countries have acknowledged terrorism as a significant threat to peace and stability in the region and have lent support to India’s efforts to have a universally accepted definition of Terrorism at the United Nations. “In addition, ASEAN and India support the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) currently under negotiation at the UN,” sources said. India has revived its two decade old proposal of CCIT and will be pushing for its adoption at the UN General Assembly this month.

India is said to have completed a draft taking into account objections of the three main opposition blocs: the US, the Organisation of Islamic Countries and the Latin American countries. The original draft that was tabled in 1996 and discussed until April 2013 will give a universal definition of terrorism, will make it imperative for all 193-members of the UNGA to adopt it in their own criminal law, and clamp down on all terror groups camps without distinction between good and bad terrorists.

IAF officers to declare personal computers now

Stung by a latest cyber leak that resulted in information regarding various simulated operational scenarios with Pakistan doing war time going into public domain, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has made it necessary for its officials to declare their personal computers. 

Making the rules for computer usage more stringent, the IAF has now asked its personnel to give an undertaking declaring their personal computers and assuring that it will be used as per laid down rules by the armed forces for cyber security.

The latest guideline stems from an incident that happened earlier this month when one of its officers unwittingly connected his personal computer to the internet connection resulting in the Operational Concept Descriptions (OCDs) that involved suggested offensive scenarios and attack plans going public.

Alarmed IAF authorities launched a thorough checking of all the official and personnel computers in the IAF and another strict advisory was issued against storing service information on computers. IAF officials, however, said that no service information was “compromised”. “During a routine check one personal computer was found have a concept paper, which got into public domain,” officials added.

The laid down cyber security procedures stipulates that any service related information shall be stored on stand-alone computer and the computer shall not be linked with any internet connection or pen drives, as it increases the chances of a cyber attack. Following this latest incident, the IAF has again put out an order that “No matter how trivial the information is, it will not be stored on personal computers.”

For the last 2-3 years, the country’s vital and sensitive organizations have been facing constant cyber threats. Waking up to this additional domain of warfare, the Indian armed forces are mulling a joint cyber command that will bulwark the Indian defence establishments against the ‘hacking brigades’ prowling for sensitive and strategic information. The Indian Navy has in fact begun recruitment of its exclusive IT brigade. The trainer cyber experts would be deployed on board warships and various sensitive establishments on shore to manage and secure the network in the organization.

Earlier this year the Indian Navy constituted a Board of Inquiry (BoI) against some of its officers in the Eastern Naval Command whose computers were found to be bugged and official information compromised. Various strategically important projects including the construction indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant is underway at Visakhapatnam and the Russian-build nuclear submarine INS Chakra is also based here. Chinese hackers were suspected behind the attack. 

In another BoI, four senior Indian Navy officials from technical branch were alleged of possessing and leaking classified information through social networking sites.

Indian Navy’s IT brigade getting ready in Kerala

The Indian Navy is preparing its own brigade of trained cyber-hackers in Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala, Kerala – to stand up to the Chinese cyber attackers and launch a counter attack to fish out information from their computers.

Taking into account the new threat environment, the Indian Navy has taken a decision to have a dedicated IT force to manage its entire network. The first batch of the Information Technology cadre will commence its training in December this year at Indian Naval Academy in Ezhimala, Kerala. The officers will be absorbed in the force under the executive branch as Short Service Commission officers, the navy officials said.  

The force has already given out advertisement calling in applications from qualified people. “This IT force of navy would be deployed onboard warships and various sensitive establishments to manage and secure the network in the organisation to secure the network,” the officials added.

The IT brigade will be deft in handling state-of-the-art networks and niche applications both in operational and administrative areas. They would also take care of open source applications and proprietary tailor made software. Moreover, IT cadre profile would involve designing and implanting secure and critical networks including manning of security operation and network operation centres in a domain of cutting edge technologies while maintaining various Navy wide applications and portals.

The announcement of IT cadre by navy has come at time when cyber attacks have increased many fold on military networks from various quarters, especially from China.

More recently the navy's Eastern Naval Command was the victim of the attack and it could not be ascertained how much sensitive information was lost in the attack, which involved a computer bug that clandestinely infiltrated the naval computers and then transmitted data back to Chinese computers.