I understand there has been a case of hacking: Defence Minister about submarine data leak

“I understand that there has been a case of hacking,” admitted Indian defence minister Manohar Paarikar, even as he ordered for a probe into the case of data leak about the six submarines that French builder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.

This is the biggest sensitive data leak case globally since Edward Snowden.

The leak, which was reported first by The Australian, an Australia-based newspaper contains more than 22,000 pages.  The newspaper has chosen not to publish the sensitive part.

 “Clearly, it is a reminder that, particularly, in this digital world, cyber security is of critical importance, ” said Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, in an interview to a television channel. The incident has raised a lot of concern in Australia, as the same French company is also building submarines for Australia.

However, DCNS clarified that “In the case of Australia, and unlike India, DCNS is both the provider and in-country controller of technical data for the full chain of transmission and usage over the life of the submarines.”

In the case of India, where a DCNS design is built by a local company, DCNS is the provider and not the controller of technical data.

While DCNS stops there, a statement by Defence Ministry of India said, “It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India.”

The extremely short statement said that the available information was being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and an analysis was being carried out by the concerned specialists.

 “A variant of the same French-designed Scorpene is also used by the navies of Malaysia, Chile and, from 2018, Brazil, so news of the Edward Snowden-sized leak — ­revealed today — will trigger alarm at the highest level in these countries. Marked “Restricted Scorpene India”, the DCNS documents ­detail the most sensitive combat capabilities of India’s new $US3 bn ($3.9bn) submarine fleet and would provide an ­intelligence bonanza if obtained by India’s strategic rivals, such as Pakistan or China,” said The Australian.

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