WAR WITHIN THE DARK WEB (A brief about Indo-China situation)

Author:Prakhar Vishwas Mishra *

Editor: Shuvasmita Nanda

Introduction:

Reading the heading of this article, many people would get the idea that in reality India and China have great armies and a huge infantry on both sides however both of them at this particular point cannot afford a war and the reason behind that is quite evident. Yeah! You guessed it right, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disabled each and every mega power in the world and currently every country has invested all its medical as well as financial power in finding an effective cure for this virus in the form of a vaccine. The same case is with China and India too; both the neighboring countries currently have their focus on tackling this situation of COVID-19.

What happened in Galwan?

However, in the month of June this year as we all know that a bloody scuffle happened between India and China in the Galwan region in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred however the number of Chinese soldiers who died in the scuffle is still unknown but in the aftermath of this event certain leaks came out from China which showed that about 40 soldiers were beaten to death by the Indian soldiers in the same conflict[1]. Their backbones were broken and their faces were disfigured during the fight which was very shocking for the Chinese side as the number of Indian soldiers were about 40 percent less than the number of Chinese soldiers involved.

This means that despite being greater in number, the Chinese soldiers were not able to overpower the Indian Bihar Regiment. Yes, The Gallant 16 Bihar Regiment, one of the most furious regiments of India was posted in the Galwan region which proved as a bad luck for the Chinese soldiers[2]. This scuffle was followed by an ongoing stand-off between the two nations and both of them are standing firm on their grounds and now heavy artillery and weaponry are being posted by both the nations on their respective borders to ensure a proper reaction to one another's action. 

Unvarnished Cold War using IT as a weaponry:

India this time has been very stringent in its policies towards China as the Indian government have banned 177 apps including very popular apps like Tik-Tok and PUBG in retaliation to the China’s attempt of infiltrating the Indian border, however India has given the reasoning behind this ban that the operation of these applications were posing danger towards the INTEGRITY, SOVEREIGNTY and SECURITY of the nation.

In a statement released by a senior police official revealed that about 40,000 cyber-attacks were attempted on the Indian IT space and as matter of fact most of them originated from the Chengdu region of China. This shows the agitation of the Chinese government after the strict steps taken by the Indian government. The amusing thing about this attack was that all the 40,000 attempts were made during just a span of 5 days[3]. The attacks were done with the aim of hijacking sites as well as IP’s, denial of services and phishing. Recent National Cyber power index shows that China is the second most powerful nation in terms of cyber intelligence after the US[4].

Also, a recent investigation exposed that China was keeping an eye on 1,350 Indians including key political people as well as people with a high profile in the nation[5]. Chinese spokesperson in his declaration said that the company monitoring the Indian personalities was not collecting the data rather it was channelizing it which is widely available for online usage and it has done no crime in doing such acts as many companies do the same. He also tried to cover it all by keeping upfront fake promises of China countering cyber crimes as well as being the defender of the Cyberspace. Although reports suggest not only China but many other big countries tried to attack India in terms of Cyberspace including China, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam and Korea which makes India the sixth most cyber attacked nation in the world[6].

Now It’s High Time

Security Expert and President of Center for China Analysis & Strategy, Jayadeva Ranade threw light on a very important fact in an interview that India giving such a huge share of its market to China is only making itself exposed and vulnerable to the Chinese cyber attacks. He also iterated that now when India is preparing for the 5G network revolution so, it should wisely tackle and remove giant Chinese networking companies like Huawei from the nation. The greater relieved we would be the lesser we would import Chinese chips and hardware’s in the nation[7].

Although the Indian government has now been vigilant over the topic of cyber warfare and is trying to build a strong defensive wall against the cyber attacks launched on it as well as the potential that India has in terms of IT intelligence is overwhelming and now it is high time that the Indian Government should work upon licensing hacking tutorials in India as well. This should be done to raise an army of hackers in India who will be no different from the Indian Armed Forces as we need to defend both the things equally i.e. the borders as well as the Indian Cyber space .

Yes, hacking can also have negative effects but if the government would try to propose and propagate hacking as a source of employment then surely the Indian youth would grab this opportunity with both their hands and the real potential of the Indian intelligence in terms of the IT sector will be unleashed. This should be done as soon as possible as India has taken many setbacks in terms cyber security being always defensive in its approach. However, the time has come that India broadens it cyber power and takes an aggressive step forward which would make it sufficient to launch a counter attack over any of the countries trying to invade the Indian cyberspace upfront. This step will really boost India’s cyber security and make it a nation stronger than ever.

REFERENCE

1.‘Fact Check 100 Chinese soldiers killed in India-China border clash at galwan valley’https://eurasiantimes.com/fact-check-100-chinese-soldiers-killed-in-india-china-border-clash-at-galwan-valley accessed on SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

2.Bihar regiment to replace 16 Bihar regiment ’https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/1-bihar-to-replace-16-bihar-regiment-at-galwan-valley/articleshow/76881535 CMS accessed on SEPTEMBER 27, 2020

3.‘India and China cyberwar ’https://cisomag.eccouncil.org/china-india-cyber-war/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20top%20police,in%20the%20last%20five%20days accessed on SEPTEMBER 27 2020

4. ‘China The second most powerful cyber power nation https://eurasiantimes.com/china-second-most-powerful-cyber-power-india-could-face-the-chinese-brunt/ accessed on SEPTEMBER 27 2020

5. A tech firm with ties to Beijing is reportedly monitoring over 10,000 Indians, including Modi https://qz.com/india/1902930/chinese-firm-zhenhua-tracking-indias-modi-gandhi-tata-adani/accessed on SEPTEMBER 27 2020

6.Most Cyber Attacks India faced< https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/economy/article/exclusive-most-cyber-attacks-in-india-from-china-pakistan-hackers-exploit-covid-19-emulate-pm-cares/609868> accessed on SEPTEMBER 27 2020

7. Jayadeva Ranade on Chinese Cyber attacks https://www.thequint.com/videos/news- videos/jayadeva-ranade-explains-china-cyber-attack accessed on SEPTEMBER 27 2020

*The Author Prakhar Vishwas Mishra is a BA.LLB(Hons) student at Jagran Lakecity University(School of Law), Bhopal.

Disclaimer-This article is the original submission of the Author. VAIDHA doesn't hold any liability arising out of this article.