No networks or classified files compromised, says DRDO

DRDO today said that none of its networks has been compromised through hacking and it does not store classified information on computers connected to the Internet.

“No classified information is kept stored on the machines connected to the Internet. No network of DRDO has been compromised,” DRDO spokesperson Ravi Gupta said.

He said DRDO maintains a strict “air gap” between the machines having Internet and the ones without the facility.

An earlier report claimed that in a major security breach, around 50 computers belonging to the armed forces and the DRDO were hacked and classified files could have been compromised. Revelations of this hack come almost exactly a year after DRDO reported breaches by alleged Chinese hackers.

The computers that were claimed to be hacked were located in the South Block and belong mainly to the Army along with the other two forces, they said.  The security establishment feared that up to 30 files marked as classified could have been compromised in the process, said the previous report.

However, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon had said, “various forms of compromise” and “not every leaked password is a big threat to security.