SURGE IN CYBERATTACKS ON INDIA LINKED TO PAK OFFICERS TRAINED BY ITALIAN FIRM

People carrying out the Pak-sponsored attacks were trained by an Italian security firm that also has tied up with Indian defence PSUs.

- ARHINANDAN MISHRA

Last year in November, a Singapore-based cyber security firm had revealed that state-sponsored cyberattacks against India increased by 278% between 2021 and September 2023, with services companies, including information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, seeing the highest share of attacks. More significantly, during this period, targeted cyberattacks on government agencies went up by 460%, while startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) saw a whopping increase by 508%.

Now it has emerged that people carrying out these state-sponsored attacks (read Pakistan-sponsored attacks) were trained by an Italian security firm that also has tied up with Indian defence public sector undertakings.

Confidential communication documents between an Italian cyber security firm and Pakistan Directorate Naval Intelligence, Pakistan Naval HQ, Islamabad pertaining to the period of December 2022 and January 2023 shared with The Sunday Guardian has revealed that Pakistani Navy officers, of the rank of colonel, lieutenant colonel and major, underwent a 13-week advanced training course on Malware Development for IOS, Android, Apple Operating system and Windows in Rome, Italy.

As per one of the letters that was sent in December 2022 by the Chief Representative Officer, Pakistan and Central Asia of the Italy-based Elettronica group to Commander Muhammad Nadeem Ilyas, Directorate Naval Intelligence (Tech), Islamabad, the company representative confirmed the training module program for these Pakistan officers. This letter was sent in response to a letter sent by Commander Ilyas on 7 December 2022 seeking details on “Training Course on the Malware Developments for IOS, Android and Windows” for Pakistani military officers.

The letter by the representative of the Italian company to Commander Ilyas, among other things, has stated that: