After a staffer working in the external affairs ministry was arrested last November for allegedly passing on confidential information to the Pakistan Intelligence Officers (PIOs), another case has surfaced where two Indian Air Force and Army personnel have been intercepted for being in contact with the Pakistani intelligence.
Indian intelligence agencies have alerted the concerned departments including the armed forces and ministries regarding the fresh case.
According to sources, the matter was reported in Gujarat where it was found that PIOs “trapped” a few civilians and the two personnel through Facebook. Further technical investigation revealed that the PIOs contacted the personnel on WhatsApp.
Upon interception, the sleuths found that the IP address and contact numbers belonged to Pakistan.
The matter has been raised with the central intelligence agencies and more inputs have been sought from concerned ministries to get more information. Sources said the matter first came to light last month, which was further escalated to the top level. It is expected more personnel are likely to be in touch with the PIOs.
Top sources say the PIOs have increased their activities and are contacting personnel. In some cases, they called up the control room of the central police forces and posed as senior officers to get information about the deployment and movement of troops.
Also, there were some instances where Pakistan’s intelligence officials were found in WhatsApp groups created by Indian armed forces’ personnel.
A senior government official said the attempt to trap the Indian armed forces personnel has increased in the past one year. Those, who are deployed in sensitive areas, were contacted through multiple attempts in order to trap them. Also, brute-force attacks were noticed to get unauthorised access to systems as well.
“A few instances have also been reported where PIOs were found to be members of WhatsApp groups created by the CAPF personnel,” a communication sent last year said.
All forces have their cyber sanitisation process but jawans remain vulnerable.
Forces regularly monitor the inventory of mobile numbers, social media accounts being used by the officials and even by their family members for select officers based on the organisation. The suitable restrictions on sale of used mobile phones by the regular/contractual/ third party employees in sensitive civil and defence establishments remain under check by central agencies and forces as well.
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