Chinese break into army network near N-E border

Chinese intelligence agencies may have planted computer malware and broken into the headquarters of 33 Corps, the army formation looking after most of the north-eastern border with China. The break-in included the planting of trojan viruses which may have given Chinese operatives remote access to the computer network at the 33 Corps headquarters in Sukhna, near Siliguri, West Bengal.

Security sources that DNA spoke to could not confirm if there was any evidence of a mole in 33 Corps, but the Chinese apparently had access to key information contained in a report made by the Corps.

Even as investigations were on into the break-in, the 33 Corps leadership decided to permit a private educational complex to come up just outside their premises at Sukhna. “It is baffling. While we were still looking into the entire affair, they were clearing the complex,” the sources said.

The decision has now been cancelled, and a court of inquiry has reportedly pointed fingers at the military secretary, Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash, and three other generals, for their alleged complicity in permitting the Rs300 crore educational project. Land near the Sukhna headquarters belongs to the West Bengal government, but any development needs army clearance. The generals were reportedly complicit in allowing a business trust to corner the land on the plea of setting up a franchise of Mayo College, Ajmer. Mayo College has denied having given anyone permission for a franchise.

The intelligence break-in was first noticed in 2007, after the Chinese military destroyed a couple of the unmanned Indian military bunkers at Doka La in the tri-junction of Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet in November.

“Immediately after the Doka La incident, we noticed that they were using various references of ours at flag meetings and other forums,” said one source. The Chinese seemed to be using India’s assessment of the distance of its military posts from the disputed border. What really startled the Indians was that the Chinese had precise information on a couple of other bunkers near Doka La, arguing they were inside Chinese territory.

Their claims were exactly the same as the ones made in a report prepared at 33 Corps. This particular report was later dismissed as wrong by the army after further assessment, said sources. The erroneous report had probably identified a few military posts of India as being on the other side of the border. Later inspections revealed that the particular report had used wrong grid references to come to the wrong conclusion, and was thus overruled, sources said.

Even today, the sources are unsure how much damage has been done to our military plans due to the break-in. “Our investigations continue,” one of them said.

Once these facts emerged, a massive operation was launched to check where the leaks were happening. What emerged later was far more shocking: The investigators found Chinese Trojans, malware planted and controlled by the Chinese, on the entire network and even on some standalone computers of the corps headquarters. “It was startling,” a senior source in the security establishment told DNA.

After these revelations, a stringent exercise has been underway in Sukhna and other formations of 33 Corps to ensure that further breaches do not occur. Among them is a decision not to use computer networks, to use only standalone
computers, and not to communicate sensitive information over phone, fax or the internet.

Sources are surprised that even after the startling security breach, the 33 Corps leadership went ahead with the proposal to permit a private business group to start a massive educational complex right next to its headquarters. “It would have been a major compromise (of security),” one of the sources in the security establishment said.