Cyber Feud India-China: Information Security Wars

June 30, 2020
cyber feud china india cyber attacks website scanning phishing attacks

Cybersecurity experts from Singapore have notably recorded recent attacks to India prominent ministries. The said security firm seen the offensive in cyberspace after running their standard website scanning, targeting mainly the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Information & Broadcasting. Second to these are well-known companies such as Reliance Jio, Airtel, BSNL, Micromax, Cipla, Sun Pharma, MRF, and L&T.

The experts confirmed the exposure after the surveillance done on a hacker forum wherein the subject is about the Chinese government retaliation to India. The espionage’s goal was to solely exfiltrate sensitive data and damage the reputation entirely of the targeted organization. With reversed IP engineering and modus operandi pattern, researchers uncovered that the perpetrators are from the government-backed hacking group Gothic and Stone Panda of China. These groups were tagged as notorious in the hacking community for their stealthily and brute force of operation, which includes website defacement, DDoS, cyber- espionage, and Phishing activities.  Countries such as Japan, the United States, and Brazil are their new prey for this hideous activity.

 

Uncovering the tracks of the threat actors

According to the Cybersecurity report, the attack was linked to the recent violation of India to the border agreement with China stipulated recently on June 6. Though both countries historically are involved in the territorial dispute, the grave aggression sparks again after India crossed the demarcation on the Galwan Valley border as per the initial report.  However, other reports have also been released by news outlets stating that China has doubled the number of its military deployment. Also, they added few structures within the LAC that may have started the tension. On the recent clash reported that happened on June 15, there are 20 Indian soldiers have shed blood, while the number of casualties for China is yet to be confirmed. From which the cause and the ‘WHO’ initiated, the fire is still under investigation.

 

Motive based on current events between India and China

Much speculation arose due to the recent border war between China and India. The two populous countries in the world are back again to a bloody war after over 40 years of unilateral treaties within the border region, along with Pakistan and Nepal. Rumors such as the cyber-attack have happened as China wants to teach India a lesson and to do a reconnaissance mission on India’s military action plan.

Currently, this dispute is under the radar by the United Nations. It is to possibly sanction restraints to both countries and to reached an immediate peace treaty. UN will soon be on a meeting with China as per its request. At the same time, India is scheduled to be on a trilateral summit with Russia and China. Hopefully, the dispute may be tackled at this meeting and reached an agreement.

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