India to greenlight state-sponsored cyber attacks!! New age of War

The New age of War....

India to greenlight state-sponsored cyber attacks

The Indian government is stepping up its cyber security capabilities with plans to protect critical national infrastructure from a Stuxnet-like attack and to authorise two agencies to carry out state-sponsored attacks if necessary.

Sources told the Times of India that the government’s National Security Council, headed by prime minister Manmohan Singh, is currently finalising plans which would give the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) the power to carry out unspecified offensive operations.

India is also hoping to co-ordinate its defensive capabilities better, in the event of an attack which could debilitate its critical infrastructure.

The country was reportedly hit by Stuxnet, although it doesn’t appear to have caused any serious damage and was unlikely to have been a deliberately targeted attack.

So India is getting into the game too eh? IMO, this is obviously (as the article states) a reaction to the Flame/Stuxnet Virus that did infiltrate some computers within India, although with little damage. However, they want to ensure their defensive capabilities on their computers are ready for any other virus that comes along.. the bigger story is the fact that the government has sanctioned the Indian defense department (DIA) and the NTRO, to carry out offensive operations using cyber tactics!!
I see it as, "looks like sutxnet worked out really good for the Israel/US crew.. lets make our own and use it against Pakistan!" Guarantee that Pakistan is thinking the exact same thing!

Most recently it has been under fire from hacktivist collective Anonymous in retaliation for it stance on illegal file sharing, while hackers from neighbouring rival Pakistan are thought to represent a constant threat.

This leads us to this question, Does the new age of Cyber-Warfare 'level the playing field'?? Obviously its not nearly to the same magnitude of a detterent as nuclear arsenal, thats for sure. BUT, take this India/Pakistan as an example. They both have nukes, are they going to use them anytime soon against eachother? Probably not. So next best option to mess up your opponent? Cyber warfare! They could develop a weapon, much like stuxnet, that could eliminate the nuclear detterent of either country with a well placed virus!

It could be the new way to make or break a country, to gain more power in the world, to increase your sphere of influence within your regional area...

And obviously, this has been going on for a while now.. Consider Stuxnet and Flame Virus, both suspected of being a joint Us & Israel operation to attack Iranian computers, specifically those within Nuclear plants/research/labs, however it seems like it is the high-money defensive countries that have the capability to do this right now, well, until now. I bet you see a ton of smaller countries get into the game. Just think, one well created and placed virus COULD take down an entire country, even a super power! Ie US, China, Russia.. all it would take is the power grid to be attacked, communications or anything else that is vital to your technoligical society of today!

Thoughts?!?!

ATS Threads on Stuxnet and Flame:
US officials confirm Stuxnet was a joint US-Israeli op
Stuxnet an offshoot of Flame

reply to post by Nspekta


The amazing part isn't that India is sactioning these types of attacks, it's that they are doing it publicly.

China and the US are masters of cyber warfare, why invade a country when you can destroy them with a $500 laptop.