Can India survive a Chinese cyber attack?

Beijing has been strengthening its ability to wage e-warfare; has already hacked into US and Germany's defence networks

HONG KONG: How vulnerable is India to a cyber attack by the Chinese military? The chilling question assumes significance in the light of revelations that twice in the past three months, cyber-war experts within the Chinese military have been caught virtually red-handed hacking into defence and economic computer networks in Germany and the US.

China ---- and other countries, including India ----- routinely engage in cyber reconnaissance by probing computer networks of other governments. However, the Chinese hacking of the Pentagon computer network in June, in particular, was the most successful cyber attack on the US Defence Department, and demonstrated the Chinese military's capacity to disrupt systems at critical times, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The sensational episodes of online warfare raise critical questions about the preparedness - or lack thereof - of systems in India to withstand a cyber attack by China. Just last week, gaping holes in the Indian e-security environment were shown up when a Swedish "ethical hacker" blogged details of e-mail accounts and passwords of several Indian government institutions, including the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the National Defence Academy, and the Indian embassies in China and the US (among a few other countries).

The matter assumes significance particularly because China has been steadily strengthening its ability to wage electronic warfare alongside its rapid (and non-transparent) modernisation of its military and arsenal. The US Defence Department noted in its 2007 annual report to Congress that the PLA "has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to protect friendly computer systems and networks.

In 2005, the PLA began to incorporate offensive computer network operations (CNO) into its exercises, primarily in first strikes against enemy networks."

PLA theorists have even coined the term 'Integrated Network Electronic Warfare' to prescribe the use of electronic warfare, CNO, and kinetic strikes to disrupt battlefield network information systems. The PLA sees CNO as critical to achieving "electromagnetic dominance" early in a conflict.

Just how catastrophic can a cyber attack get? Gen James Cartwright, who testified in Congress before the 2007 US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, says the psychological effects generated by the sense of disruption and chaos caused by a cyber attack "could, in fact, be in the magnitude of a weapon of mass destruction."

But how prepared is India for such a "war minus the shooting", one where a potential adversary has been shown up as polishing its armoury and keeping the gun power dry?

Meanwhile, China rejected the Financial Times report alleging that PLA cyber war operatives had hacked into the Pentagon computer system. "Some people are making wild accusations against China… They are totally groundless and reflect a Cold War mentality," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said on Tuesday.

The Chinese government had "consistently opposed and vigorously attacked all Internet-wrecking crimes, including hacking," she added. Jiang also dismissed as "groundless" a BBC report that Chinese-made weapons had been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan against British and US troops.