Major in Indian Army accused of 'cyber breach'

An investigation by the army and other agencies into classified information leak from a Major's computer has established "cyber security breach", but not the espionage angle so far, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Friday.

"One thing is clear, established (that) there is a clear case of breach of cyber security. That is proven beyond doubt," Antony told the media.

He was replying to questions on the probe against an Army Major posted in Andaman and Nicobar Islands from whose computer critical information had been e-mailed to a Pakistani agent.

"It is a case of alleged misuse of computer by an officer of the army. The moment we got information, government took action and we ordered an inquiry. The army itself ordered the inquiry, which is still going on," he said.

Noting that the officer was questioned by the army and also by other security agencies, Antony said nothing else has been proved so far. "They have not got any proof (on espionage)," he said.

Terming hacking as a "serious problem", the defence minister said there were many complaints from various sources of hacking of computers containing very sensitive and important information in various organisations.

"After that, the government as a whole and the defence ministry in particular has taken sufficient precautionary steps to prevent this kind of misuse and hacking," he said.

To another query on a purported complaint by Haryana Janhit Congress leader Bhajan Lal against an Army officer posted in Chandigarh for alleged misconduct, Antony said the defence ministry would take action whenever there were allegations.

"We will not ignore it. Whenever there is any allegation, there is always an inquiry. I told you once that may be there are lapses here and there. But compared to other institutions in our country, the armed forces are taking action more quickly. Still, we have to improve," he said.

Noting that there was one more institution in the form of the Armed Forces Tribunal, he said the present government had, after 26 years, created the AFT as a "corrections" forum.

Asked about the case of Navy Commodore Sukhjinder Singh who was allegedly involved with a Russian woman, Antony said he had not yet received a report on the inquiry in the case and once he gets the file, action would be taken as per the probe recommendations.