India's Military Cyber Command To Get Nod Soon

With the Indian Armed Forces rapidly embracing network centric warfare, there is a need to brace for cyber attacks during peace and war. Our adversaries will relentlessly probe defence networks during peacetime for security lapses, with the twin aims of developing cyber attack strategies to use during war and gaining access to operational data such as weapon system capabilities and location of tactical and strategic assets during peace

Indian armed forces woke up to the threats of a cyber war well in time and are readying to set up a defence Cyber Security Agency as a precursor to the tri-services Cyber Security Command that has been proposed as part of the military modernisation programme. This proposal, according to a senior Indian military officer, is at an advanced stage for approval and the nod for the same, along with the other proposal for a Defence Space Agency. With an increasing strike by enemy forces on military networks, the three armed forces realised that the cyber security agency should be the first of the new formations that should come up to deal with the threat on a dayto-day basis.

The need for a Cyber Security Agency has been more than emphasised by the latest threat of a ransomware that threatened to disrupt several of the world's government services, including healthcare services. The attack - called 'WannaCry' - sounded more like a Hollywood action movie, in which the bad guys smuggle out a cyber weapon from a secure military location and unleash it worldwide to extort money from the governments and the people. The saviour of the world is a nondescript cyber researcher from one of the military research and development laboratory, who comes up with the most commonsense way to unlock the ransomware and defeat the villains.

WannaCry was a similar global disaster that came true and it affected over 90 per cent of the Microsoft 7 users worldwide. WannaCry had adversely affected Britain's National Health Service, Russia's interior ministry, China's universities and Germany's railway system. It could have been much worse and could have impacted a lot of defence establishments too.

But that's clearly the kind of threat that the Cyber Security Agency that has been proposed now, and the future Cyber Security Command of the Indian armed forces, would precisely work to counter and prevent from affecting India and its armed forces.