NIA launches probe into malware injected by Pak ISI in defense personnel devices

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) launched a probe into a concealed malware injected by ISI in computers, phones, and other devices of defense personnel to hack the sensitive information related to national security.

As per the sources, the account, the name of Shanti Patel, inflicted the systems to gain unauthorized access to the restricted data of the computer resources.

The malware first came into notice when Andhra Pradesh police initiated an investigation into the matter based on source information in June 2020. The incident prompted the army to issue a directive on July 9, 2020, asking all its officers and soldiers to delete 89 social networking apps from their devices.

Now, the case has been handed over to NIA based on the Andhra Pradesh police case to look into national and international linkages of the suspects and the ramifications of data theft on national security.

One of the NIA officers said, “the ISI hackers posing as Facebook ‘Shanti Patel’ account befriended Indian defense personnel and then engaged with them through a private messenger chat on the internet. The suspects spread the malware by displaying them as a folder with attractive photographs of women.”