Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 22: In the backdrop of undeterred cease fire violations by Pakistan, BJP National Executive Member & J&K chief spokesperson Dr Jitendra Singh today expressed serious concern over the Intelligence reports that Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency ISI has resorted to a hi-tech cyber warfare against India aimed at infiltrating Indian Government agencies, using fake phone calls and spyware.
Elaborating this, he explained, Pakistani agents have been making phone calls to Indian military personnel and officers, through “spoofed VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)… prefixed with the STD code of Delhi and posing as senior officers belonging to the Indian Military Headquarters in New Delhi, to collect sensitive data such as locations of military, etc.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, there is evidence that ISI agents were, through cyber network, targeting the headquarters of India’s Armed Forces and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) as well as Indian Railways, banks and state-owned telecommunication company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
It is believed that, using data collected from certain unsuspecting BSNL employees on bogus phone calls, ISI may have successfully penetrated the telecom company’s database and released a spyware into its system, he added. Quoting Intelligence sources, he said, the software planted in the BSNL system could also be used by the ISI to identify and penetrate communications networks of other organizations, making them vulnerable to cyber attacks.
This is an alarming input, said Dr Jitendra Singh, considering the fact that, apart from being India’s largest landline phone company with a network of more than 46 million access lines covering most of India, BSNL is also associated with key counter-terrorism and cyber security projects implemented by the Government, including the Central Monitoring System (CMS), a security surveillance system which was launched in April.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the light of these new developments, the Indian agencies would be expected to work over time to rid the communication system of any existing spyware and at the same time, take all possible safeguards against any future cyber intrusion.
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