New Delhi, November 24: Pakistani cyber criminals deface nearly 60 Indian websites every day, says celebrity cyber security expert Ankit Fadia, adding that cyber terrorism is the biggest threat India is facing today.
"The next big war that the country may have to wage against terror will be on the Internet. The network infrastructure of the country may be attacked any time. Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and Myspace may also pose a threat," Fadia told media in an e-mail interview.
Fadia, 24, is considered "one of the best and the youngest ethical hackers in the country".
He is an authority on computer security systems and digital intelligence. The computer whizkid, who at the age of 16 cracked an encrypted al Qaeda mail for an intelligence agency soon after the Sep 11 attacks, has a degree in information security from Stanford University in the US. He advises top-of-the-chain global MNCs, the Singapore government and Indian police forces in network security and digital upgrades, and hosts a television show on ethical hacking.
"Pakistani cyber criminals deface nearly 60 Indian websites a day, but in return only 10 to 15 Pakistani websites are defaced. It has been going on since 2001. India may be the IT capital of the world, but as far as security issues are concerned the country is lagging far behind," Fadia said.
"Most countries have been victims of cyber terrorim some time or the other. Since 2000-01, Pakistani criminals have been defacing Indian websites and writing derogatory messages against India. It is known as Hacktivism, hacking into websites to spread a political, social or economic cause."
Fadia, who was working with the Central Bureau of Investigation till a couple of years ago, said: "As more and more aspects of our lives are now online, the danger of cyber terrorism is only rising."
Terrorists are now using "VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) chats, hidden messages inside photographs, draft e-mails and encrypted pen drives to communicate across the world, he said.
After the Mumbai terror attacks last year, Fadia worked with the police "to decode various VoIP messages that the terrorists passed on using various VoIP software (Skype and Google Talk) before the attacks to plan the strike.
"The police had also found various e-mails that were sent by the terrorists. I worked with the police to trace the e-mails back to the source and determine the exact geographic locations of the terrorists."
Fadia said: "At that time, India needed proof that the terrorists had indeed come from Pakistan. However, the initial e-mail trace revealed that the mails were sent from Saudi Arabia and Russia.
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