India Affected By the Cyber Spying Campaign Called Red October

Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security firm on 14 January 2013 revealed that India is one among various nations which are hit by the cyber spying which has been targeting governmental, diplomatic and scientific research organisations for around 5 years. The cyber spying campaign is termed Red October or Rocra by the Kaspersky Lab.

Rocra significantly affected countries like Kazakhstan, Russia, India, Belgium and Azerbaijan apart from other countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Soviet republics. Rocra infected hundreds of the computers across the world in categories such as research institutions, government, diplomatic/embassies, nuclear/energy research, trade and commerce, aerospace and military as well as oil and gas companies.

Kaspersky Lab declared that the cyber spying campaign was functional since 2007 and at present too it is active. Depending upon the Kaspersky Security Network, the number of infections that affected Russia was maximum (35). It was followed by Kazakhstan (21). India, Azerbaijan and Belgium had 15 infections each.

Other affected nations included Armenia (10), Afghanistan (10), Turkmenistan (7), Iran (7), US (6), Vietnam (6), Ukraine (6), Pakistan (5) and Brazil (4).