India says leak of submarine papers doesn’t compromise security was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on August 25, 2016, and was last updated on August 25, 2016.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar described the leak as “a hacking” and briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about it yesterday.
An internal audit of procedures to rule out any security breach is also being undertaken, the navy said in the statement, a day after it stressed that the leak appears to be “from overseas and not in India”. The Scorpene submarine is widely considered to be one of the most advanced of its kind and is believed to be created to evade detection underwater. According to the report, the data leak occurred in France in 2011.
Authorities in India are investigating a massive data leak that has exposed sensitive information relating to a fleet of new submarines being built for its navy by French company DCNS. “First step is to identify if it’s related to us, and anyway, it’s not all 100% leak”, Parrikar told reporters.
The secret information consist of 1000 of pages on submarine sensors, 1000 more on communication and navigation systems and 500 pages on the torpedo launch system alone. It is also still uncertain as to whether the data leak originated from France or India.
DCNS, in a statement, said that “this serious matter is thoroughly being investigated by the proper French national authorities for defense security”.
The Scorpene submarines, designed by French shipbuilder DCNS and being manufactured at the Mazgaon Dockyard in Mumbai at a cost of around $3.5 billion, are conventional diesel vessels that boast of advanced stealth capabilities.
Australia in April awarded DCNS an A$50 billion (S$51.6 billion) contract to design and build its next generation of submarines. The leaking will cause to trigger off countries that operate a variant of the Scorpene, or have ordered the submarine, including Malaysia, Chile, and Brazil reported The Australian newspaper.
The details leaked included what frequencies the submarines gather intelligence at, what levels of noise they make at various speeds and their diving depths, range and endurance – all sensitive information that is highly classified, the Australian report said.
At a daily express briefing, a foreign ministry spokesman said Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault did not talk with his Australian counterpart about the issue.