The War is On

Smith Gonsalves

Cyberwarfare is an effective way of disrupting the functioning of a nation-state. It has the potential to impact the economy, connectivity, and even political stability of a country. An insidious aspect of cyberwarfare is cyber intelligence that can compromise both national interests and nation security.

Targeted Cyber Attacks on India  

Akin to guerrilla warfare, the enemy is unknown in cyberwarfare, hence direct contact with it is not possible. It is often said that cyberwarfare is bloodless with the ability to have kinetic impact on foreign territory without physical operations.

The following infographic shows how attacks are carried on people with the use of different techniques such as profiling, target selection, intrusion areas like email address and phone numbers etc. There are various methods and techniques to carry simulated attack chains with the use of mitre attack framework for offence and defence.

Analysing more specifically, we can see in the following infographic how a targeted Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) campaign operates through sending a malicious email which when clicked can take various privileges and establish Command and Control for transferring confidential files to the attacker’s system from the moment attachment is downloaded to its escalated execution on the system.

These are active APT campaigns used by Pakistan and China units to trick government and military personnel.

As we go deeper into the preparedness of India’s cyber strategy for combating--defensively and offensively--state sponsored cyber-attacks, we must understand the challenge we face. The truth is India has been facing continuous cyberattacks by its adversaries. Some of the instances of cyber terrorism are:

1)     A malware was identified in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

2)     Cosmos Bank was hacked by North Korea’s APT groups.

3)     Mumbai’s power grid was targeted by Chinese hacker group Red Echo.

4)     Prominent corporate and government enterprises have suffered data breaches. They have faced both ransom and hostage situations at the time of                 ransomware attacks.

5)     A targeted drone attack on the air force station in Jammu with kinetic payloads attached and operated through a remote command and control was seen