Mumbai: Cyber security company Symantec Corp. said it had identified a sustained cyber spying campaign against India and Pakistan bodies involved in regional security. The attack is likely a state sponsored one. India was considering setting up a cyber command, a senior Indian intelligence officer said on Monday.
As per the report by Livemint, Symantec said in a threat intelligence report that was sent to clients in July that the online espionage effort dated back to October 2016.
The campaign seemed to be the work of several groups, but tactics and techniques used suggested that the groups were operating with “similar goals or under the same sponsor”, probably a nation state, as per the report, which was reviewed by Reuters.
“Symantec did not identify the likely sponsor of the attack. But it said that governments and militaries with operations in South Asia and interests in regional security issues would likely be at risk from the malware. The malware utilizes the so-called “Ehdoor” back door to access files on computers,” said the Reuters report.
The intelligence officer, who spoke to Mint who does not want to be identified, said: “India had been thinking of setting up a cyber command, which would require the operations and skills of ethical hackers. This is primarily to keep apace with the likes of China and Russia whose military and cyber intelligence is infallible.”