In the wake of the hacking and defacement of official website of Central Bureau of Investigation, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and Secretary of Defence Research and Development V. K. Saraswat said here on Sunday that websites of defence establishments are safe.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of convocation ceremony of city-based KIIT University, Dr. Saraswat said: “Defence websites don't use the Internet. We use our own networks, which are completely sanitised We have security solutions like intruder detection system, firewall, identification system and digital signatures. Security of our networks is quite robust.”
Pointing out that cyber security was a major concern, he said not only defence establishments but also more and more institutions in the medical, banking and railway sectors using Internets were susceptible to these attacks.
“One thing is that defence uses Internet to a very minimum extent. Our networks are completely isolated,” the prominent defence scientist said, adding that there were separate networks for Army, Navy and even the DRDO.“We have less probability of being hacked or being subjected to these kinds of attacks.”
He said DRDO had initiated research on cyber security as part of a new programme. “We have opened three centres at Hyderabad, Bangalore and at New Delhi. We are carrying out research and development activities specific to cyber security.”
Stating that there were many aspects to cyber security, Dr. Saraswat said, “Number one is the hardware like computers and switches. Unfortunately even today we import most of these items. They are coming from various countries. So there is possibility that these hardware parts are already bugged.”
“So we have started doing design and development of our own hardware. We are trying to build it in our own country,” he said.
“Second part is software. Most of us use commercial software available in the country. We have got Windows and some use Linux. These software packages are likely to be bugged.
“We have started Indian Operating System programme which will be exclusively developed for security applications. The entire programme will involve large number of academic institutions, industry partners and DRDO scientists.
“It is a huge effort. Software development takes lots of time. It cannot be done overnight.
On possibilities of hardware being bugged during manufacturing in the country, Dr. Saraswat said, “Bugging takes place when the equipment is designed and manufactured. But the design is going to be ours.”
He, however, said, “We don't have foundries. We have to go to outside foundries. We will get it done under our supervision so that nobody can make any malware or any switch or any parallel part which are likely to create security problem.”
Recently, a group of people who identified themselves as “Pakistani Cyber Army” claimed responsibility for defacement of the CBI website which came as an embarrassment to the premier investigating agency.
