Top IT firms on terror radar
Nuclear plants also vulnerable, says home secy
Over the past two weeks, security agencies have received credible intelligence reports of terrorists’ plans to target IT firms and sensitive installations like atomic plants and oil refineries on the country’s coastline, top Central government sources said here on Wednesday.
Attesting this, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said that since the country is the world leader in software, the industry is high on the threat list.
Addressing a conference on “Challenge of Terrorism to India's Infrastructure and Economy,” organised by Security Watch India and Independent Power Producers’ Association of India, Pillai said: “The IT companies in India are now realising this and are taking their own measures to try and see how best they can provide maximum security. The government is in partnership with these software companies in an effort to provide adequate security.”
What makes the intelligence input a matter of concern for the security establishment is that Indian software exports have risen from Rs 28,350 crore in 2000-01 to an estimated Rs 2,16,300 crore in 2008-09. The industry is expected to grow 16 per cent this fiscal and log revenues of $60 billion despite the global slowdown.
Refusing to disclose the names of some of the top IT firms which might be targets of terror, Home Ministry sources told Deccan Herald that software companies headquartered in Bangalore and Cyberabad (Hyderabad-Secunderabad) would be “prime objects” of attack.
But the sources said the intelligence inputs were not part of the corpus of information the American FBI gathered in the course of the interrogation of David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Gilani, the American national arrested in October for planning the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The government’s concern stems primarily from earlier intelligence reports that IT major Infosys was a possible target for terrorists. On the basis of these concerns, which the government shared with software industry representatives in the past, Infosys assets, including buildings, were offered the services of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
“That was done as a measure of abundant pre-caution,” a senior official said.
Pillai said India's western coastline hosting several petroleum and nuclear installations is also vulnerable to terror strikes from the sea route.
“Petroleum and nuclear installations located on the western coast are highly vulnerable,” he said.
