Indresh Kumar calls for forming a 'Ring of Fire' to ensure cyber security

New Delhi, Aug 9: Addressing the valedictory session of the two-day global meet on Cyber security organized by the Forum for Awareness of National Security (FANS) at Dr. Ambedkar Stadium here Indresh Kumar, Patron of FANS global meet on cyber security calls for drafting national security strategy document and integration of IT human resoures to form the Ring of Fire to ensure cyber security of our nation.

 

He said that India at present faces the serious security threat from China because of the expansionist policy of the Chinese Government. China's moves towards Taiwan, and other neighbouring countries of India. Indresh Kumar said that the entore country will have to resolve to defeat the Chinese designs. If we fail to thwart the Chinese evil designs now its next target after Taiwan and Nepal would be India, he warned.

 

He said that the patterns of warfare are changing fast and ionternet is being used as a most powerful weapon and when we are dealing with cyber crime every oinformation is most implortant, he added.

 

He said that China is engaged in economic and cyber war against India besides the propaganda war. However, with stringent economic measures the government has frustrated its economic moves. China hsas been ousted from national highways, telecom projects and defence projects. But we still have to defeat its designs of ctber war against India, he said.

 

Country moving in right direction: The Chief Guest for the day, Union Power, New and Renewable Energy Minister R. K. Singh, discussed the strategies and policies of the government to ensure the safety and security of the nation. He also drew attention to some incidents that occurred in the recent past to disturb the social fabric of peace and harmony by spreading fake messages through different social media platforms.

 

In his speech, he applauded the initiatives take by the honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India self-sufficient and also for changing the perspective about India on the international platform.

 

He observed that for the first time in the history of our country, we have sent a strong message to the enemies that India will not tolerate anything which is against the interest of its citizens and national security at large.

He concluded his speech by assuring everyone that India is moving in the right direction under the guidance of the Prime Minister and that there is a bright future ahead for all of us.

 

Joint Theatre Command: In the inaugural session, Lt. Gen A. J. Singh, shed light on the ‘Joint Theatre Commands.’ Late General Bipin Rawat, former Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army, was engaged in setting up the Joint ‘Theatre Command System.’ In the present times, most of our commands are regional or theatre-based, and the need of the hour is to create a Joint Command. He said that in the cyber-domain, it is a combination of the theatre and the function command.

 

According to him, cyberspace is a unique amalgamation of function and space, which requires expertise from different fields. He gave examples of other countries like the United States of America, China, Russia and Pakistan to show how they are developing a separate command for cyberspace. He also talked about imaginative cartography and recall of treaties to manipulate the existing territorial demarcation.

 

He cited the example of South China Sea along with other instances to drive home his point. He informed the audience that China is propagating three forms of warfare, namely Public Information, Psychological Warfare and Lawfare to prove its claim through imaginative cartography and recall of treaties. He emphasised on the point that we need a system and consolidated structure that suits our cyber ecosystem.

 

In his speech, he congratulated Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for taking the initiative of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ as it will decrease our dependence on other countries, especially for technologies. As a result, we are in a position to handle the challenges and infringement in cyberspace that is attempted through hardware that we used to procure from outside. He also made a mention of Pravin Sawhney’s The Last War: How AI will Shape India’s Final Showdown with China.

 

Lt. Gen A. J. Singh pronounced that cyber war is largely about narratives and storytelling. He raised a very poignant question: if America could take notice of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and reformulate its security policy for future warfare, why can’t we process the information and ideas provided by writers like Sawhney? He was of the opinion that in order to deal with cyber-attacks, we will have to work collectively like cyber-yodhdhas, i.e. cyber warriors.

 

Technical Session: In the technical session “Tech Gyan,” Mr. Amir Shimon Groman, Mr. Oded Awaskar and Mr. Itzhak Levy made a presentation on cyber-defence, cyber-offence, crypto & blockchain, and cyber-academy. Mr. Groman explained the adverse effects of Virtual Avatars or false images on an individual’s life or society in general. He said that social networking sites have all the information related to a person, but the irony of the situation is that people are ready to share the information with these websites who take no responsibility to protect data.

However, what can be a greater irony than the fact that the very same people are not ready to share their data with their national security agencies who are working day and night to protect them and their privacy.

 

According to him, there are countries which have military avatars to influence the people and societies of other countries. He gave the example of Abu Dhabi trade fair, in which a group of virtual avatars tried to sabotage the fair by maligning its image. He underlined the fact that in order to tackle these situations, we will have to provide cyber-knowledge to our young generation and make them aware of the methodologies of our opponents.

 

Mr. Groman also demonstrated his ideas through a real-life video. He explained the importance of technological strategies to tackle incidents like suicide attacks. He said that cyberspace is a field where field experience is more important than traditional academic methodology employed in the teaching-learning process. He made a potent remark: he said that we will have to overcome the misconception that we serve technology, because in reality, it is technology that serves us. He concluded his presentation by reiterating the importance of psychological training along with technical training in order to ascertain the security of a nation.