Airspace to cyberspace: How India fought swarms of drones, wave of misinformation during conflict

DURING the four-day intense military confrontation, the Indian armed forces intercepted and neutralised swarms of Pakistani drones to push back aerial incursions, while teams of cyber warriors on ground countered digital intrusions and a wave of misinformation.

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In fact, even before India decimated nine terror camps in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir and Pakistan under Operation Sindoor with precision strikes early on May 7, many Indian websites had become targets of cyberattacks.

Days after the dastardly Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir in April, Jalandhar-based Army Nursing College's website was hacked and defaced with an inflammatory message.

At least four Army Public Schools (APS), including APS Nagrota and APS Sunjuwan, were targeted by hackers recently, a source said on May 5.

Besides, attempts to hack and compromise websites, a "campaign of misinformation" was run against India and the Indian armed forces on the internet, including on popular social media platforms, starting late April which intensified after the launch of Operation Sindoor and following counteroffensives by India after Pakistan's military retaliation.

"At 8 pm local time on May 8, several Pakistan unmanned aerial systems, drones, combat vehicles attacked multiple IAF bases. These included Jammu, Udhampur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Bathinda, Nal, Dalhousie, Thoise, Jaisalamer, Uttarlai, Phalodi, Naliya. These were almost simultaneous and they came in waves. All our AD (air defence) guns, and other systems were waiting for them. All these waves were neutralised by our trained crew," Director General of Air Operations, IAF, Air Marshal A K Bharti told reporters on May 11.

There was no damage on ground from "these incursions, and mass raids if I could call them from the Pakistani side", he said.