India plans to add cyber offensive capabilities to military

by Steve Ragan - Aug 10 2010, 15:48

An article in The Economic Times of India says that the government is planning a program consisting of a small army of software professionals that would compromise hostile foreign government systems to gather intelligence.

Offering amnesty to the IT workers and ethical hackers who join, the project will be used to launch offensive or preemptive strikes on hostile networks by breaching their network defensives. According to the Economic Times article, the proposal for such a military group was made during a high-level security meeting last month.

Given the laws in India, one lawyer who spoke to the Economic Times said that there would need to be a provision in the IT Act to exempt “patriotic stealth operations”, as hacking is punishable in India with a fine and prison sentence of up to three years.

Intelligence and military officials in India proposed such a plan due to worries over sabotage and intelligence operations from neighboring states, including China and Pakistan. Such operations have occurred in recent times, adding a dose of reality to their concerns.

Under the terms of the proposal, the National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) [more details here] along with Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) will be responsible for creating cyber-offensive capabilities. [Note: The additional information link is to Wikipedia. It should be used as a base for information and not as a source for conclusive information on the NTRO.]

It is the NTRO, the article reported, that will coax IT professionals into the program, offering assurances that they will be protected by law.

The program is said to include the development of highly-encrypted algorithms, with help from engineers and scientists from the IITs and Indian Institute of Science.

In addition, the article noted, the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) will help the DIA boost efforts to develop protections against electromagnetic-pulse bombs that can interrupt wireless signals inside the country.

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