With China-based hacker groups increasing their attacks on computer networks across the globe,Army on Monday said its information systems were "secure" and could not be "tampered" with. "We have put in place a very secure network and I can confidently say that it cannot be tampered with," Army's Signal Officer-in-Chief Lieutenant General P Mohapatra told reporters in New Delhi. Talking about the security features of the armed forces' network,he said,"Its exclusive,there are various cryptographic controls that we have put in place and there are training activities to ensure that no loss of information takes place." Mohapatra's statement came in the wake of New York-based media reports that a vast cyber spy network controlled from China has hacked into nearly 1,300 government and private computers across 103 countries,including those of Indian embassy in Washington and the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama. Commenting on the hacking of the Dalai Lama's computers,Mohapatra said systems of the spiritual leader and others could be hacked as they were connected to the internet. "It is not a new phenomenon. This has been happening since the inception of internet and vulnerabilities are there in that system," he added. On the progress made by Army in networking its weapons and sensors,Mohapatra said: "Network centricity is ongoing process and therefore as technology evolves,we have to get newer technologies into the fold and evolve according to what facilities or powers that network centric technologies can offer us."
