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Chinese cyber thieves hack into DRDO's web sites news
13 March 2013

Chinese hackers have attacked websites of India's top security organisation, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), causing one of the biggest security breaches of the file systems of hundreds of key DRDO and other security officials.

The hacking has compromised sensitive files related to the cabinet committee on security (CCS), the highest decision-making body for security issues of the government.

The cyber thieves, sitting in the Guangdong province of China, have also stolen files belonging to the governments of the United States, Russia, and South Korea.

The hacking, which is believed to be officially sponsored by the Chinese government, was detected after officials of the Information Dominance Group (IDG) and private cyber security officials began to track down the `NetTraveler Trojan and Key logger' that had infected Indian systems.

Officials of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the official technical intelligence wing, working with private cyber security experts detected the breach after they cracked open a file called ''army cyber policy''. The file was attached to email accounts of senior DRDO officials at high speeds.

NTRO experts who tracked the origin of the file discovered that all the sensitive files stolen from the infected systems were uploaded into a server in China's Guangdong province.

In the first successful tracking of Chinese cyber thieves, the intelligence officials have been able to accurately pinpoint the origin of the attack.

They have traced thousands of top secret files, including those from the CCS and documents related to surface-to-air missile and radar programmes from DRDL, a DRDO laboratory based in Hyderabad, as also of several other establishments.

The Chinese cyber surveillance was so elaborate that the Guangdong server had even files related to the e-tickets of the scientists who had travelled to Delhi in the last week of February as also other documents related to their activities.

Other documents traced included those on deals struck between DRDO and defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Ltd, which manufactures strategic missiles and components. The Chinese have also laid hands on documents related to price negotiations with French defence firm MBDA.

The officials also detected files related to the Russian military as well as files of US home security agency Centre for Security Research & Development Center (CSRDC) as also some files belonging to US space agency NASA. The huge server at Guangdong also had files belonging to South Korea as well.

Defence minister A K Antony said, ''Intelligence agencies are investigating the matter at this stage and I do not want to say anything else.''

DRDO spokesperson Ravi Gupta, however, said, ''as per our information, no computer or network of the DRDO has been compromised.''

Chinese hackers have for long been hacking into key Indian web sites, including those belonging to the armed forces.





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Chinese cyber thieves hack into DRDO's web sites