Indian Army Gears Up for Cyber, Electronic Warfare

Guarding the borders, battling militants and training for blitzkrieg battles is just not enough now. Facing mounting attacks in the virtual world, the Indian Army is now gearing up for battles in the digitized battlefield as well.

The ongoing army commanders’ conference, chaired by General Deepak Kapoor, has decided to boost the “cyber-security” of its information networks right down to the level of divisions, which are basically field formations with over 15,000 troops. Apart from creating cyber-security organizations down to the division-level to guard against cyber warfare and data thefts, the Army top brass has also underlined the urgent need for “periodic cyber-security audits” by the Army Cyber Security Establishment (ACSE).

“The most advanced armies in the world like the US one also face 3,000 to 4,000 attempts a year to hack their networks. As our Army boosts its infotech levels, we also become more vulnerable to such threats. Future conflicts will be fought by ‘networks’,” said a senior officer. Both China and Pakistan, for instance, are bolstering their cyber-warfare or information warfare capabilities at a rapid clip. China, in particular, has made cyber-warfare one of its topmost military priorities, with Chinese hackers breaking into sensitive computer networks of the US, UK, Germany and even India on a regular basis.

“By crippling or destroying an adversary’s economic, communication and strategic networks and infrastructure, cyber-warfare can even prove more deadly than ballistic missile strikes. It can, for instance, be in the form of denial-of-service cyber-attacks and paralysing computer viruses,” said another officer. The Indian armed forces, of course, are also trying to hone their information warfare weapons as well as enhance their C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capabilities.

The tri-service integrated defence staff, on its part, has also come out with an information warfare doctrine. But the progress is slow compared to the infotech boom in the civilian arena. Even as the armed forces take some strides forward on the infotech superhighway, the need to protect their own systems from cyber-attacks of hostile forces is increasingly being felt.

Published by India Defence