DRDO gears up for space, cyber warfare scenarios

New Delhi India's Defence Research and Development Organisation today said it is developing capabilities to protect the country's space-based assets, such as satellites. The organisation's director general, Dr VK Saraswat, however, made it clear that in principle the country was against the use of space for warfare.

''We don't believe in use of space for warfare. Our philosophy is to use it only as resource... We have to make sure that our assets are protected and access is not denied…DRDO has a programme to protect our assets in space,'' Dr VK Saraswat told reporters here.

Noting that India needs to be active in this area with other countries gearing up their space-based offensive programs, Dr Saraswat said, ''DRDO has a programme to protect our space based assets and to ensure continuity of access there.''

On new threats emerging in the area of cyber space, he said two DRDO labs are working in these areas to develop suitable technology.

''There are new threats emerging in the field of cyber warfare. Two DRDO labs are working specially in this area. We are trying to see various ways to make our team competent in this regard so that we can monitor the flow of cyber traffic and look at the ways to encrypt and disrupt them,'' he said.

DRDO took up the project following a number of recent cyber-attacks on government website from groups of hackers based outside India.