Computer systems at Indian prime minister’s office not hacked into
15 Jan 2010
New Delhi: In response to reports that the computer system at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had been hacked into, it has now clarified that there was 'no breach' in the security systems either at the PMO or those in other central government departments.
A TV channel report had suggested that the attack was the work of Chinese hackers. This has now been denied.
"Attempts have always been there to hack our computers, but we have our security systems in place," a PMO official said.
"There has been no breach on our security system, we are absolutely safe," PMO media adviser Harish Khare said.
According to the TV channel report, hackers from China had targeted computers in the PMO around 15 December last year and "investigators are still coming to terms with the depth of the damage".
It said the hackers had aimed at the "cream of India's national security set-up - national security advisor MK Narayanan, cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar, PM's special envoy Shyam Saran and deputy national security advisor Shekhar Dutt. The four and up to 26 others were squarely in the crosshairs of the hacking attempt".
"The hacking spyware itself was embedded in a PDF document and the trojan horse was programmed to carry out an array of functions, including downloading files, accessing emails and passwords and also accessing the desktop from a remote location," the report said.