"Information war has potential to threaten political stability," says Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that the gap between internal and external security was getting narrower and new dimensions of the security threats are emerging that are becoming increasingly difficult to classify. Addressing the convocation of the National Defence College in Delhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh expressed his concern over what he termed "non-kinetic" and "non-contact" warfare.

"We are facing such security threats, which fall into the category of non-kinetic and non-contact warfare. Cyber warfare and information warfare are such security threats. The vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyber-attacks has become a big concern. Critical infrastructure like power generation and distribution is increasingly becoming more complex and reliant on networks of connected devices," said Rajnath Singh. Singh noted that the energy sector is one of the main targets of cyber-attacks along with transport public sector services, telecommunications and critical manufacturing industries.

"With the changing times and society, the dimensions of security have also changed. The gap between internal and external security is getting narrower. New dimensions of security threats are emerging, that are becoming increasingly difficult to classify," Singh said adding that the energy sector is one of the main targets of cyber-attacks along with transport public sector services, telecommunications and critical manufacturing industries. Talking about fake news through social media, Singh said that there is no account of how much fake news and hate material is likely to be brought to society through social media platforms.

"The organised use of social media and other online content generation platforms is being used for engineering the opinion or perspective of the masses. The deployment of information war was most evident in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine," he noted. Singh said that working towards shared and collective responsibility of the comity of civilised nations will solve the problem the security challenges.

He further said that the information war has the potential to threaten our political stability. "Together, Russia and Ukraine export nearly a third of the world's wheat and barley, but this conflict had prevented grain from leaving the "breadbasket of the world" and led to a food crisis in various African and Asian countries and also fuelled an energy crisis in the world. In Europe, oil and gas supply has been dwindling. India has also been affected as the Russia-Ukraine war led to a disruption in international energy supply, making the energy import much more expensive," Singh said.

Defence Minister also said that a strong and prosperous India would not be built at the cost of others, rather, India is here to help other nations realise their full potential. "When we partner with any nation, it is on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect. Forging relations comes naturally to India, as we work towards mutual economic development. Enlightened self-interest of nations can be promoted within the framework of strategic morality, which is predicated on the understanding and respect for the legitimate strategic imperative of all the civilised nations," Singh further added.