NEW DELHI: The personal details of over 50,000 Army officers, including Chief of Army Staff(CoAS) General Dalbir Singh, are believed to have been ‘compromised’ following the hacking of the website of Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) (PCDA), which manages accounts pertaining to salaries and other remuneration of Army officers.
According to sources, preliminary investigations into the hacking indicated that hackers, based in Gujranwala in Pakistan, have used a fake Mumbai-based IP address to crack the PCDA website. “Hackers based in Gujranwala are suspected to have used proxy servers to protect the IP address. The use of an IP address which shows Mumbai location was a thought out step to ensure that the last denominator details remain in the domain of speculation. Probe is on,” a source said.
Viewing the incident as a serious security lapse and a major threat, various agencies, including cyber and security intelligence agencies, have been roped in to assess the degree of damage caused by the hacking.
Controller General of Defence Accounts, Arvind Kaushal, convened a series of meetings of various agencies and officials here to take stock of the situation. Efforts are also being made to restore the website.
Meanwhile, a panic-stricken Army issued an advisory to all its officers to open new e-mail IDs and to stop using password of present e-mail IDs with immediate effect. Army claimed that some important data have been ‘compromised’ which include the officers’ IC number (badge numbers of each officer), PAN number, date of birth and date of commissioning. Army fears that with the crucial data, anyone can get details of a particular officer and matters related to his posting and others.
“Such things have never happened before and with this, they (enemy) have got access to officers personal details and to some extent, to their official details also,” said an officer.
The Army has advised the officers against getting phishing mails, registered with the PCDA (O). It also directed them to change their email IDs urgently and register with the website afresh when it becomes operational.