Antony for strategy to fight cyber attacks

Pointing out that cyber terrorism is one of the major future threats to the nation, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Saturday India must move towards making its network security tamper-proof.

With the country's armed forces and defence establishments making strides to become network-centric, Antony said cyber attacks would pose a major threat.

He said with terrorist and non-state actors clandestinely acquiring sophisticated cyber technology, this threat could be more ominous.

"A few nations are believed to be providing training to a large number of hackers to attack highly intricate and networked systems," Antony said.

The aim of these cyber attacks is to disrupt functioning of government agencies, gain illegal access to sensitive information and break into banking systems.

At present, the security agencies are not fully structured to deal with such disruptive challenges effectively, the Minister said in his address to the 42nd foundation day of the country's strategic think tank Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis.

He said such crisis situations demand quick and effective responses. "The need of the hour is to devise integrated strategies for better assessments, contingency planning and making long-term forecasts".