NEW DELHI – Indian Army’s counter-intelligence (CI) wing and MilitaryIntelligence (MI) carried out searches at the official premises of anIndian Lieutenant Colonel posted at a base headquarters in Jabalpur, MadhyaPradesh, on Wednesday, on suspicion that he may have fallen prey to ahoneytrap or ‘spear phishing’ by Pakistan’s ISI , reported Times of Indialink>.
Officials remained tight-lipped on the operation, but sources say that theofficer is posted at the Army base workshop and was on the radar for thelast two months. He has been detained, they said. CI and MI officers movedin on him on Monday, said an officer.
The takedown team arrived in 14-15 vehicles and started searching hisoffice and quarters, said sources. There are multiple theories doing roundsand it’s not clear if he was honey-trapped or is being investigated in acorruption case. It is also being alleged that the officer has fallenvictim to spear phishing e-mails due to which some classified informationgot leaked.
Spear phishing is a targeted e-mail-spoofing attack, different fromphishing for financial gain, and is solely aimed at unauthorized access tosensitive information.
The officer is being questioned at Army Central Command headquarters andwill be taken to Lucknow for further investigation, say sources. His wifereportedly protested with the senior officers when he was being questionedon Tuesday night.
Sources say certain documents have been collected from his office. Lastweek, an IAF officer was arrested on charges of leaking classified detailsand documents of Indian operations to Pakistan. Investigation revealed thatit took seven months for ISI to honeytrap the IAF officer.