Kashmir has become an epicenter of India- Pakistan cyber-warfare
India and Pakistan have continued to target each other for gathering intelligence and damaging their global reputation of each other for a long time now. However, recently it has been highlighted by media globally.
At various stages, both these nations have deployed their state-sponsored hacking groups to perform such operations that largely included misinformation and intelligence exploitations.
India and Pakistan have fought so many wars over Kashmir since 1947. Over the last three decades, Pakistan has sponsored a proxy revolt in Kashmir as it claims that Kashmir is territory.
The proxy war was initiated by backing up terrorist entities like the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Hizbul Mujahidin (HM). The proxy war approach makes it highly sophisticated and complex. The speedy growth of the internet and mobile phones enabled Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to comprehend the potential of next-generation information warfare in Kashmir. To strengthen it, Pakistan also took various steps of which one was hiring a lobbying firm.
In 2019, China’s favored lobbying firm ‘Brown Lloyd James’ came in limelight for helping Pakistan to build up support for its Kashmir Case. The firm in the past ran numerous campaigns for the former ruler of Libya ‘Muammar Gaddafi’. This campaign was operated by Qatar and was apparently operated by the Doha branch of the company.
Similarly, India and Pakistan used intelligence exploitation as its major approach against each other. On 27 November 2019 Netscout, a U.S. –based tech firm, identified six Indian linked Advanced Persistent groups that consist Lucky Elephant, Donot Team, Patchwork Group, and Sidewinder group, and three Pakistani linked APT groups that were behind the state-backed hacking, but most of the times Pakistan took help from China to run such hacking operations.
Another regular approach used by both these countries is misinformation. On June 3, Facebook had distant Pakistani’s network of accounts and pages involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” that targets domestic audiences, as well as intercontinental speakers of English, Pashto, and Arabic Languages.
The network comprises 40 Facebook profiles, 25 pages, six groups, and 28 Instagram accounts, many of which used fictitious personas or pretenses as sovereign media outlets to post about current news with a clear political agenda. Facebook unveiled that their research found links to persons allied with AlphaPro, a Pakistan-based PR firm.
In 2021, the Brussels- based Eu DisinfoLab uncovered a massive network of 265 fake local media outlets in 65 Nations fulfilling Indian interests, as well as multiple doubtful think tanks and NGOs. These networks were active in Brussels and Geneva in emerging and boosting content projected to damage Pakistan.
In the exploration of Indian Chronicles, another Indian network had been revealed by the group that aims to emphasize Pro- Indian and anti-Pakistan perspectives in India. The network belongs to Srivastava Group (an Indian-based firm).
