Less than 72 hours after the Indian Prime Minister’s office stated through its media adviser: 'There has been no breach on our security system, we are absolutely safe”, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan has been quoted by the British daily, The Times, admitting that a hack attack from a suspected Chinese source had indeed been made – on the same day in December with Google and other global players were targeted.
The Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6991789.ece  ) quotes Narayanan as saying: “This was not the first instance of an attempt to hack into our computers”, adding that the came in the form of an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing a “Trojan” virus, which allows a hacker to access a computer remotely and download or delete files. The virus was detected and officials were told not to log on until it was eliminated. “People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese. It is difficult to find the exact source but this is the main suspicion. It seems well founded”, he told the newspaper’s Delhi correspondents, Richard Beeston and Jeremy Page. The details provided by Narayanan are almost identical to those in the India Today group’s daily, Mail Today and its TV channel Headlines Today – vindicating these revelations that were promptly denied by the PMO. The phrase used which says “no breach occurred”, might be factually correct but the reality that such an attack took place was not admitted in the government’s knee jerk reaction… something that flies in the face of Narayanan’s admission to the British paper, three days later .
China meanwhile has denied any role in the hacking attacks, which began on December 15 , with a formal statement from the Foreign Ministry: “Hacking in whatever form is prohibited by law in China”.

Narayanan who five years ago assumed current his position as National Security Adviser, reporting directly to the Prime Minister, is moving on, and has since been named the next governor of West Bengal state.

Our previous report on this subject: http://www.indiatechonline.com/google-and-cyber-security-issues-194.php  
Jan 20 2010