Cyber Terrorism Grips India As Well

India may be the most vulnerable place in the world now for physical terror attacks, but experts who trawl the Internet to track terror trails in cyberspace say that the country is equally vulnerable to cyber terrorism.

In fact, they say that even as physical hits by the bombs and guns are intermittent, for over two years terrorist organizations have been hitting India continuously through the Internet with their radical Islamist propaganda . And the impact of that onsought is no less agonizing than the thousands who have been killed so far by the terrorist bombs and guns.

The propaganda using the Internet is intense, and encompasses not only websites but also blogs, Web 2.0 -- like the Orkut -- and other areas of the cyberspace, including email groups and even recorded messages left as voice mails.

Cyber attacks can come in many forms. However it is the anti-Indian propaganda, or what some call "radical Islamist propaganda," that dominates.

"The hatred they are spreading is often hard hitting. But unfortunately there's nothing much India can do because much of it escapes the authorities' notice," says Alok Mukhopadhyay, associate fellow, at the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, an independent think tank on issues of national and international security.

"The propaganda is almost always in Urdu or Arabic which few in India can follow," he said. "The other problem with regard to particularly radical Islamist websites is that,these sites are hosted from developed countries in the EU like Germany, Spain, Italy, France and the likes, where such websites are not under close scrutiny of the respective governments."

Mukhopadhyay has done a research on radical Islamic organizations in Europe and their discourses on South Asia. He adds that yet another problem is that the radical Islamist websites also come in various European languages and keep on changing their web interfaces, fearing imminent ban by the authorities. "The clever use of cyberspace then, makes tracking of propaganda all the more difficult." he says.

According to experts the biggest impact of cyber terrorism is that it has been able to spread its hatred or radicalism far and wide, as well as attract followers from all walks of life succeeding in converting them to insurgents.

"Close examinations reveal that most of the websites are designed to target Internet users in the age group of 16 to 26 years," says Mukhopadhyay.

This form of 'radical Islamism', he adds, intensified by a media revolution, communication technology and, specifically, through the Internet, has deeply influenced the minds of many young Muslims around the world.

"Sadly, most perpetrators of terrorist incidents or persons involved in hatching conspiracies are young and belong to the Muslim community; many of whom do not have any terrorist antecedents at all. Neither is it a fact that all of them are poor," says Mukhopadhyay.

Indeed, many instances have shown that the persons involved in such activities were not only educated and from sound economic background but also had promising lives and careers.

Nevertheless, according to Cyber Society of India (CYSI) raging a passive ideological war is not the only form of cyberterrorism India suffers from; the country is also attacked routinely by terrorist hackers who snoop into government owned websites and personal computers for monetary gains.

This is why CYSI feels that besides ramping up the country physical security infrastructure, the government also needs to ramp up the country's ICT infrastructure to prevent cyberattacks.

Through a recent plea to the IT ministry, CYSI has called for development of a comprehensive, integrated security system to address security concerns of India's ICT space. Urging the government to take proactive measures, CYSI has also called for a revamp of the country's IT ACT of 2000 to make it effective for the current challenges India faces in the cyberspace.