Chinese Army's cyber attack unit eyeing information on India's defence and research, warn security agencies

The Chinese Army's secret unit '61398', known for cyber espionage, is eyeing information related to India's defence and research, the security agencies sounded an alert on Monday. According to a report of the security agencies, this secret unit of the People's Liberation of Army (PLA) has intensified its activities against India.

Many cases have been reported in the last few months in which Chinese hackers associated with the PLA attempted to gather sensitive information of the country through cyber espionage.

Headquartered in Datong Avenue of Pudong district in China's Shanghai, unit '61398' is witnessing a spurt in these activities, asserted an officer deployed in the central security speaking to Zee Media. "Through unit '61398', China has been engaged in gathering information like cyber, space and geolocation intelligence around the world for a long time. These units are found to be very active against India," said the officer.

Since 2015, PLA has centralized its space, cyber and electronic warfare (EW) assets in the newly raised PLA Strategic Support Force (PLASSF). Therefore the unit '61398' which deals with cyber warfare and was under erstwhile 3 PLA (General Staff Department Third Department) have been subordinated under the network system department of the PLASSF.

Another officer who is aware of the development said that there is a report of at least three cyber hackers supporting cyber espionage activities. Recently, there have been attempts made by these hackers to send a special computer programme worldwide by attaching malware tools to cyber espionage. Icebug, Hidden Lynx (a professional advanced persistent threat using the program) and APT-12 have been used for attacking government and industrial organization by Chinese hackers.

In 2014, the US had charged five PLA military officers for espionage and they were part of unit '61398'. The US agencies believe that, like Unit '61398', many such groups exist in China with the active support of the PLA, who are engaged in cyber spying around the world. 

Many analysts believe China now has the capability to successfully target critical infrastructure during the war. There is also concern that Chinese hackers may disrupt the electric grid and banking system through cyber attacks.