Foreign hand Returns (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 4: Internal Security
Prelims level: Cyber attack
Mains level: Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security

Context

•  It is widely accepted that the current general elections would be India’s first polls to be shaped by the social media.
•  Foreign manipulation of elections is a major problem around the world US, Cambodia, Madagascar and Taiwan.
•  Consider, for example, Indonesia is about 190 million people are set to elect the president, national parliament, provincial assemblies and local councils — all at one go — on April 17.
•  Last week, Arief Budiman, the chairman of Indonesia’s general election commission, told the press that hackers from Russia and China were trying to attack the voter data base.
•  It was unclear whether the motive was to disrupt the elections or to help one of the candidates win, Budiman said.
•  To be sure, interfering in the internal politics of other societies through overt and covert means is as old as statecraft.

Highlighting the study

•  According to one study, America and Russia intervened in at least one in nine elections around the world between 1946 and 2000.
•  Russia and China, in turn, have been charged with supporting the Indian communists.
•  The fragmentation of Indian politics and the rise of regional formations since the end of the 1980s made it hard for any outsider to understand, let alone shape, electoral results.
•  The end of the Cold War and the relative harmony among major powers meant there was less pressure on the great powers to intervene in India.
•  Over the last decade or so, things have begun to change.
•  The contestation between great powers has returned, slowly but certainly.

Way forward

•  The unprecedented speed of online communication, the relative ease of spreading misinformation, the growing sophistication of fake news, the extraterritoriality of the web, the increasing impact of the digital influence operations by individuals, professional cyber consultants, criminal mafias, and above all governments, has helped constitute a new global cyber landscape that few could have imagined a decade ago.
•  The Indian political class has not devoted enough attention to the issues involved.
•  The problem needs to be addressed at least at three levels.
•  One is for parties and political leaders to pay greater attention to cyber security of their campaigns and social media accounts.
•  Two, the BJP and the Congress need a small, quiet and credible mechanism for mutual communication.
•  Finally, the national security establishment must extend full support to the Election Commission in fending off many likely threats to the integrity of the elections and help raise the awareness of the political class on the new dangers of the digital age.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) The Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) is a regional inter-governmental organisation established under the auspices of the:
A. World Bank
B. Asian Development Bank
C. UNESCO
D. World Tourism Organization

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) After US, India Could Suffer Foreign Meddling in Elections as Tech Giants Drag Their Feet. Discuss the preventive measures should be taken in order to conduct free and fair election?