NIA to probe Pak’s ‘digital honey trap’ on Indian Defence officers

CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency is probing a pan-India case in which a fake Facebook account holder, operating from Islamabad in Pakistan, collected sensitive information from gadgets of Indian defence officials by injecting malware into their gadgets like mobile phones, computers, etc., for committing terrorist acts.

The suspects impersonating as one Shaanti Patel had been spreading the malware by displaying them as a folder with attractive photographs of women, to ensnare Indian Defence officers in a ‘digital honey trap’.

The NIA FIR stated that the suspects’ aim was to spread malware into the gadgets of the officers to contaminate the system and gain unauthorised access to restricted data from the computers/phones and steal sensitive information with an intention to commit terrorist acts. The particular malware has been designed to intrude into devices and gain access to steal data. The account, fb.com/Shaanti.patel.89737, was created to collect sensitive information from the country.

The case dossier was pulled up by NIA from the counter intelligence cell of Andhra Pradesh, which registered a case in the middle of the first COVID wave in the country in 2020. Now NIA has registered the case under various IPC Sections along with Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Official Secrets Act and IT Act, and have started the investigation.

The theft of crucial information from devices of the Indian Defence personnel was carried out to jeopardise the security of the nation. The accused have infringed across various places in India, the NIA document stated.