Op Sindoor: India stayed undeterred in the face of coordinated digital strikes

Following the 22 April attack on tourists in Pahalgam, apart from the conflict at the borders, a war was also fought on the digital front.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Two detailed reports released by NSFOCUS—a global cybersecurity company headquartered in China, with extensive threat monitoring networks and threat intelligence capabilities—confirm that a parallel war was waged in cyberspace alongside the military build-up. The data reveals that India and Pakistan came under sustained cyber assault through distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, though the scale, precision, and impact of these operations varied.

Between 22 April and 10 May, India witnessed a surge of over 500% in DDoS attacks, escalating further as military exchanges intensified. Pakistan, by contrast, experienced a steeper rise of over 700%, according to NSFOCUS's analysis. However, while Pakistan experienced a sharper percentage rise in attacks, India faced more sustained and strategically coordinated assaults on its highest government institutions—yet managed to maintain operational continuity and recover swiftly.

Key Indian government institutions were specifically targeted, including the official websites of the President's Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Prime Minister's Office, the Press Information Bureau, the Jammu and Kashmir state administration, and the National Informatics Centre's DNS service. All were subjected to prolonged and repeated attacks—some lasting nearly 20 hours. Monitoring showed the use of reflection amplification techniques intended to overload services that facilitate core state functions such as public communication, defence coordination, and administrative accessibility.