The ongoing tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China has posed a threat to the territorial security of the country. While the defence forces hold their ground in the Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh, a new front has opened up in this conflict. Cyber attacks are being used to target IT, infra and banking sectors.
The confirmation has come from the IG Yashaswi Yadav of the Cyber Department of Maharashtra. This is the biggest cyber attack ever launched by China, he emphasised.
Yadav said, “The cyberspace of India has been attacked not once but 40,300 times by China and we are yet counting more and more. Maharashtra’s cyber department rapidly engaged in investigation of such cyberspace attacks. According to the Maharashtra cyber department, all these attacks have been done from the Chengdu area of China.” Chengdu is the area in China from which the ongoing cyber warfare is waged on India.
The Daily Guardian, on Monday, had reported about intelligence agencies issuing warnings the authorities about cyber attacks from China. “According to them, Indian users may receive an email in the name of ncovid2019@gov.in, which will be used as a bait to steal personal and financial data. The agencies have already informed the users not to open or download attachments from this email ID, which is designed to drive recipients towards fake websites,” the report had said.
According to highly placed sources, there are three types of attacks on India’s cyberspace. “The cyber attack this time is three-pronged: One, denial of service attack; two, Internet protocol hijacking attack; and three, phishing attack,” said a source, adding the authorities in India fear more such deadly cyber attacks and the country must be prepared to deal with them.
“China is trying to target the government sector in particular. The cyber department has asked everyone to be vigilant and appealed to strengthen cyber security,” he added.