On Jan. 12th, 2012, Frank Jack Daniel reported for Reuters on the India-US hacking story. Again, the general story being that a hacker group leaked a memo which purported to show that the Indian government spied on a US-China commission. Moreover, that document named Nokia, Apple, and RIM as possible collaborators that would provide back-doors to smart phones in exchange for an Indian market presence. The hacker group also published several e-mails from the US-China commission.
According to the article, the published e-mails seem to be authentic. However, the memo's authenticity is in question. That memo looked like an Indian military intelligence memo and actually described the hacking and phone company arrangement. The article notes that the hacker group could have created the memo to get attention, or that the Pakistanis or Chinese created the memo to drive a wedge between the US and India. On the other hand, the memo bears hallmarks of "India's bureaucratic style."
The Reuters source article can be found here.
***
I really doubt that the Chinese or Pakistanis created this memo. I would be more shocked if the Indian government did not try to spy on the US-China commission; that commission's findings have huge implications for US policy towards Asia, so of course India is interested. We know that our allies (India among them) conduct cyber-espionage against us; who cares if there is a memo proving that fact?
However, I'm still hung up on this mobile phone arrangement. I hope that this memo is fake. I hope the Lords of Dharmaraja created the memo for attention. A US company providing backdoors for foreign governments? Say it ain't so, Apple.
Leave a Reply