An important discussion will be to understand the capabilities of using technology in counter-terrorist operations

NEW DELHI: The army is conducting a major cyber warfare workshop for understanding the disruptive technologies being used by terrorists and in building capabilities to counter them.

The Directorate of Indian Defence University (IDU) of the Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff is organising a workshop on ‘exploitation of technology by non-state actors and building capacities of own forces to counter them’ from Wednesday to Thursday in Delhi.

An important discussion will be to understand the capabilities of using technology in counter-terrorist operations. “The workshop intends to cover exploitation of technology across the world by terrorist organisations, exploitation of Dark Web, state support for hybrid war, existing capability in exploitation of technology in counter-terrorist operations and future trends,” said Lieutenant Colonel Mohit Vaishnava, the Army’s spokesperson.

The Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Lieutenant General PS Rajeshwar, will be addressing the workshop. Officials from the police, intelligence agencies and other services will also be part of it to understand and discuss the use of cyber technologies by non-state actors.

An official explaining the need for the workshop said, “It was felt that the use of technology in multiple domains including cyber by non-state actors can have a tremendous destructive or debilitating effect. As a consequence, a need was felt to work towards a synergised response and capacity building to tackle this menace posed by non-state actors and terrorist organisations.”

“It is imperative that we know of the disruptive technologies that are and which can be exploited by non state actors. And the capabilities that we need to build in our intelligence agencies, armed forces and paramilitary to stay ahead of the terrorists nefarious designs,” explained another official.

The workshop comes after a major cyber exercise was conducted by the Directorate of IDU from April 29-30. The exercise involved the threat landscape and its impact, incident reporting, response framework, procedures for information exchange, evidence gathering, enhancement of capabilities to protect information and enhance cyber awareness.