Indian navy's IT system attacked by Chinese hackers

The nuclear submarine INS Arihant is based at the Eastern Naval Command. (Internet photo)

Sensitive data has been stolen from the computers of India's Eastern Naval Command by Chinese hackers, reports our sister Chinese-language newspaper Want Daily.

Bugs were reportedly planted by the hackers in three computers of the Eastern Naval Command based at Visakhapatnam for passing sensitive information through a Chinese IP address between this January and February.

In addition to serving as a base for the Indian navy's nuclear submarine INS Arihant to undergo its sea trials, the Eastern Naval Command is also responsible for the operations of the Indian navy in the South China Sea, a region where China has ongoing territorial disputes with several of its neighbors, though India is not one of them. A spokesman for the Indian navy stated that the incident has nothing to do with the Arihant, but that the materials stolen by the hackers are related to other projects of the Eastern Naval Command.

A board of inquiry has been set up to investigate six officers over the leak, the second case in which the IT systems of the Indian navy have come under attack this year. Four naval officers from the technical branch were tried by another board of inquiry earlier this year for sharing sensitive information on social networking sites including Facebook.

Source :http://www.wantchinatimes.com