Now cyber criminals targeting border disputes and diplomatic affairs in India

MUMBAI, INDIA: India is fast becoming a strategic target for cyber criminals.

According to experts, the WATERMAIN campaign comprising cyber criminals is targeting on-going border disputes and other diplomatic matters in India.

Geopolitical tensions in the region have steadily ratcheted up in recent months, and cyber activity reflects this. Organizations in very geography in APAC experienced a higher or equal rate to APT groups than the global average of 20 percent, the report said.

APT30 conducted a decade-long cyber-espionage campaign that compromised, among others, an Indian aerospace and defence company, it said.

A new survey by FireEye found over 50 per cent of telecommunications firms and government organisations have faced APT, with education and the high-tech industry not far behind across the APAC region.

The survey titled, H12015 Regional Advanced Threat Report for Asia Pacific, found that 38 percent of organisations in India were exposed to targeted advanced persistent attacks, a 23 percent increase over the previous year.

As per the survey, India ranks fourth in APAC exhibiting the most command-and-control (CnC) infection call-backs. This indicates the presence of compromised systems that are actively communicating with the advanced persistent threat (APT) groups’ command-and-control infrastructure.

“As India embarks on ambitious technology projects, attackers are exploiting gaps to compromise critical networks. Indian organizations are more likely to be exposed to attacks than the global average,” Bryce Boland , Chief Technology Officer, FireEye APAC, said. In the future, India’s growing economic clout and rising regional influence are likely to make it a more attractive target to threat groups, he added.

“These threat groups seek access to intellectual property, intelligence and critical infrastructure,” Boland said. In the first half of 2015, FireEye revealed two attacks likely conducted by China-based threat actors on Indian organizations.

FireEye said Indian organizations should ensure existing security tools are up to date and should implement an adaptive defence security model that can help shorten the time it takes between finding a breach and stopping it. Organizations also need to develop new ways to collaborate with other corporations, trade groups, and governments to share threat intelligence, it added.