What happens when society faces a dilemma on who and what to trust? In a situation where an often blurred line separates reality and propaganda, society is both the weapon and the victim. Today, social media has become the go-to platform for getting updated with national and international developments. But while scrolling through apps like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, one often does not know the source of the information or the intention behind it.
In a well-noted speech, India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, had remarked that civil society is the new frontier of warfare and that in today’s age of information revolution, the ‘will of the nation’ is under attack. As he defined it, the will of the nation is moulded by the common people, their thinking, their sense of well-being, and their perception of their governments.
More recently, speaking at a seminar on 18 July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reflected upon this concern yet again. He underlined that national defence is no longer confined to borders, but has expanded towards cyberspace, and economic and social spheres.
Drawing attention to constant attacks on India through disinformation and misinformation campaigns, he highlighted the cruciality of thwarting these attempts from both within India and abroad.
The extent of these issues and their effects are often underestimated. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war gives a glimpse of how future warfare will take place in a heavily “informationized” environment. Both sides have tried to create an information environment where losses are downplayed, and wins are exponentially magnified. Their effort has been aided by their allies from around the globe.
The manipulation of reality in wartime and in the lead-up to the war itself is not new. The world has witnessed propaganda throughout the previous century in form of posters, newspapers, pamphlets, and radio channels. Today, this has shifted to the much more anonymous, much faster, and less costly cyber domain.
The question is whether India is in a war or proceeding towards a war. The answer is, both. Today, India is facing two vile adversaries in this domain. India is being attacked not only at the domestic level, but at the international level as well. A Pakistan-China nexus is trying to not only sow doubts in Indian society regarding the governance systems, but on its defence capabilities as well. There have been reports of coordinated attacks aimed at tarnishing India’s image on the global pedestal, through the creation of fake narratives whenever the nation undergoes sensitive situations and disruptive events.
China’s cyber warfare capabilities are now well-known across the world. Several sustained cyber espionage campaigns related to Chinese-origin groups have come to light in recent years.
These groups have worked towards endowing political, economic, and strategic benefits to the Communist Party of China. When New Delhi banned China-made apps over privacy concerns, India observed hacking campaigns on government agencies, which were later revealed in several reports to be led by Chinese groups. Cyber espionage campaigns have also been noted in India’s critical infrastructure sectors like energy and telecom.
Similarly, groups from Pakistan have intruded into India’s cyberspace with phishing and espionage activities. In recent months, dozens of Pakistani-origin YouTube accounts have been banned, which disseminated exploitative and fake narratives to foment unrest in India.
In a report by cyber security firm Kaspersky this year, it was reflected that India’s cyber threats are growing, primarily due to the penetrating attacks from Pakistan and China.
Pakistan has followed the strategy of “bleeding India through a thousand cuts” for many decades. This strategy depends on waging a covert war against India by invoking insurgency at multiple locations. As cyberspace is borderless, the information warfare strategy is being deployed without the need for cross-border infiltration.
A similar strategy has been followed by China against its adversaries. China’s “acupuncture strategy” depends on asymmetrical warfare and aims to paralyze the enemy by attacking it at multiple weak points. In information warfare, the needles seek India’s strategic points like government agencies and critical infrastructure, but most importantly, the societal perspective.
Today, these two strategies are being used in conjunction against India. This “cuts and puncture” strategy relies on manipulating the psyche of the Indian society by sowing doubts through fake narratives. Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) wing, which handles information warfare, is said to be leading the “thousand cuts mission” in the cyber domain.
Over the years, it has cultivated several thousand assets through propaganda training. China, on the other hand, has multiple units dedicated to this objective, targeting different countries and sectors.
The “cuts and puncture” approach is much more than a social media propaganda campaign or a cyber-espionage mission. At its core, it seeks to destabilise the fundamental functioning of the Indian society at the social, political, economic, and cultural levels. It exploits the underlying impatience, unawareness, and fears in society, and magnifies them to satisfy nefarious ambitions. Consequently, it invokes hasty actions based on emotions and insecurities, while forcing the victim to ignore the necessity of even verifying their perceptions.
It is often argued that India should develop cyber offensive capabilities to counter information warfare and respond in the same language as well. However, while cyber offensive and defensive capabilities can be established, it is also upon the Indian society to take the onus for raising awareness for identifying, flagging, and neutralizing the mechanisms of information warfare which are seeking to engulf India today.
Divyanshu Jindal is a Research Associate at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi. Views are personal.