Information Madness

The Indian government is working to set a cyber army in which govt preparing to build a team of professional hackers who can defend the country's IT infrastructure from external attacks. Its a small army of software professionals to spy on the classified data of hostile nations by hacking into their computer systems. The special division will also be able to go on the offensive and launch preemptive strikes.

According to a report by The Economic Times, Indian govt thinking to create the cyber hacking division were drawn during a meeting between high ranking security officials on July 29. The event was overseen by National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and saw the participation of the director of Intelligence Bureau, as well as senior reps from security agencies, the IT ministry and the telecommunications department. It has been decided that the task of creating the special cyber squad will fall on the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).

“Even if the offense is done on a computer on foreign soil, it is punishable under Indian laws,” says cyber lawyer Pavan Duggal, adding that the IT Act will have to be changed for “patriotic stealth operations”.

The Economic Times reports, the professionals who will sign up to sit on the new team will be able to hack legally. However, for this to happen some exemptions need to first be introduced to the current legislation governing such actions. Under the Indian IT Act hacking is punishable with up to three years in prison and/or serious fines, regardless if the offense is done on foreign soil.

Indian government is very concerned about a rise in the number of cyber attacks against its infrastructure. This it particularly worrying, especially since many of those assaults were traced back to Pakistan and China, two countries which India is not very fond of, to put it mildly.