Grave concerns on cyber security front

China's military newspaper, the People's Liberation Army Daily, has recently warned that China must "resolutely protect ideological and political security on the invisible battleground of cyberspace." The call to arms against "Western hostile forces" on the Internet comes amidst a broader push for tighter Internet controls, including experiments with offensive cyber capabilities against websites that have been banned in China.

How about India? We are also facing similar problems here and in fact China and Pakistan together are repeatedly mounting cyber attacks on us. Not only that, Chinese are also on the prowl closer to our maritime boundaries and in Indo Pacific to monitor our security scenario. Unfortunately for us, our democracy does not allow unity amongst our political parties to jointly encourage a robust mechanism. Our enemies know of this weakness of ours.

Herein lies a lesson for us. The Chinese piece begins by repeating a claim that China has made often: that Internet or cyber sovereignty is a manifestation of national sovereignty. Over the past year, China has called attention to this concept in media articles and official speeches, seeking to win international recognition of its conceptualization of how the internet should be governed, according to its media. The PLA Daily piece makes it clear that China's 'cyber territory' must be defended as vigorously as physical territory. The warning delivered by it that if China doesn't occupy and defend its "cyber territory," then nameless "hostile forces" will use it as a "bridgehead" to attack China is quite apt and more applicable to India.

The internet has now become a battlefield for various forces against governments. The attacks by leftists on rightwing governments throughout the world are through internet more and more. In fact social media and internet are the tools to spread the leftist ideologies and beliefs more than any. After all, whoever controls internet controls the lifeline of national security and information in this information age. Well, the Chinese may extend the argument over ideologies to national security too but India does not do it.

To guard against this threat, the government must control Internet in some ways. The idea that cyberspace is of crucial importance to national security is not new, and the idea that nations must be prepared for and on guard against cyberattacks is by no means unique. The US Department of Defense, for example, recently rolled out a new cyber strategy designed to "guide the development of DoD's cyber forces and strengthen our cyber defense and cyber deterrence posture."

The control of cyberspace means for the 21st century what control of the maritime domain meant for the 19th and air and space superiority meant for the 20th century. Like a battleship or fighter jet, cyberspace can be weaponized. However, cyberspace is much more than a weapon – it is a platform for communication and exchanges of all types, from financial transactions to the sharing of political ideas.

By painting the Internet as an "ideological battleground," China claims both the right and the necessity of retaliating against not just cyberattacks, but the posting of information. Now that China has admitted to having offensive cyber units within its military, the question becomes under what circumstances China would use its offensive cyber capabilities. China's government already stands accused of using a cyber weapon called the "Great Cannon" against websites that it believes ideologically attack the Communist Party. India need not go to such extent, yet needs to wake up to the threat.