(TibetanReview.net, Apr08’21) – The Indian defence establishment has said Apr 7 that it was taking defensive measures in the form of risk mitigating strategies, such as building firewalls and recovery systems as well as integrating cybersecurity resources of the Army, Navy and IAF, given China’s capability to launch devastating cyber-attacks.
At the same time, General Bipin Rawat, the country’s chief of defence staff, has indicated that his country too was working on “offensive” cyber capabilities while acknowledging it was way behind China in this domain of warfare as of now.
The biggest military differential lies in the field of cyber. We know China is capable of launching cyber-attacks on us and that it can disrupt a large number of our systems
“The biggest military differential lies in the field of cyber. We know China is capable of launching cyber-attacks on us and that it can disrupt a large number of our systems,” the timesofindia.com Apr 7 quoted Gen Rawat as saying, speaking on “Shaping the armed forces to meet likely current and future challenges” at the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi.
The capability to come through a cyber-attack relatively unscathed is being addressed “in a very serious manner” within the country, even as India is also looking at “some support” from western countries to overcome this deficiency, Gen Rawat has said.
He did not want to talk about where India was in terms of its “offensive” cyber capabilities.
Experts have been cited as saying India needed a full-fledged Cyber Command for full-spectrum warfare, like the US and some other countries, because China had assiduously developed cyber-weapons to degrade or destroy an adversary’s military assets and strategic networks as well as energy, banking, transport and communication grids.
The report noted that while India had a strong information technology sector in the civilian arena, cyber-warfare capabilities had been ignored for far too long. And the cyber domain had fast emerged as the fifth dimension of warfare after land, sea, air and space.
