Cyber jihad by Pakistan crumbles against Indian firewalls

In yet another flare-up of hostilities, this time playing out not along the Line of Control but in the invisible theatre of cyberspace, India has thwarted a series of aggressive hacking bids emanating from Pakistan.

The targets? Sensitive defence infrastructure, Armed Forces web domains, and the broader idea of Indian digital sovereignty.

If reports from Indian intelligence agencies and news leaks are anything to go by, these aren't isolated potshots by rogue actors. They are part of a broader and calculated campaign — call it state-sponsored or at least state-indulged — aimed at probing the cracks in India's cybersecurity edifice.

What makes it more telling is not just the repeated nature of the attempts, but their timing: just as India consolidates its digital defence frameworks and projects regional confidence, Pakistan appears to be clutching at digital straws.

In recent weeks, cyber units in India have intercepted malware payloads, neutralised phishing attempts and exposed targeted incursions into critical systems. Security officials as well as news leaks confirm that the attacks bear the fingerprints of a pattern long associated with Pakistani hacker syndicates. A person close to the matter said, they are done by "groups that often operate under pseudonymous patriotism" but whose activities serve clear geopolitical ends.

That Pakistan continues to invest in such provocations, despite its own internal crises that include economic, political, and diplomatic points to a desperation that borders on the theatrical. It's not lost on observers that cyberspace has become Islamabad's convenient refuge, a low-cost battleground where it can challenge India's growing digital clout without risking conventional retaliation.

India, to its credit, has not only fended off the latest volley but ​also done so without descending into rhetoric. There's a quiet confidence within the corridors of the Indian government. Still, the warning is clear: as borders blur and new domains of warfare emerge, "vigilance cannot be episodic", as an official concedes. Simpl​y because the adversary is persistent and often faceless​ and reckless.

In the great churn of subcontinental rivalry, the war for narrative now has a digital front. And if the latest provocations are any indication, it's a front that Pakistan is desperate not to lose, even if it means losing face.