Scorpene leaks source revealed

NEW DELHI: Secret data on India’s Scorpene submarines was accessed by an unknown number of people working for a private company in a South-east Asian country and

NEW DELHI: Secret data on India’s Scorpene submarines was accessed by an unknown number of people working for a private company in a South-east Asian country and even placed on an internet server where it was vulnerable to hacking and interception.

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The leaked data, which has forced the Indian Navy to assess the vulnerability of the Scorpene submarines ordered from French shipbuilder DCNS under a $3.5 billion deal, is believed to have been “removed” from the firm in Paris in 2011 by a former French Navy officer, The Australian reported late on Friday.

The officer, who worked as a subcontractor for DCNS, and a French colleague, took the data to a South-east Asian country where they were employed by a private company run by a Western businessman. After the two Frenchmen were sacked, the secret data was sent to the company’s head office in Singapore.

The data was also placed on a server on April 18, 2013, and it was “dangerously vulnerable to hacking or interception by a foreign intelligence service”, the daily reported. “It is not known whether the data stayed on this server for a few days or for a year,” it added.

The data was also sent by the firm on a disk by regular post to a person in Sydney in 2013. This person, experienced in defence issues, was “stunned” when he saw the documents detailing the secret capabilities of the Indian submarines, the report said.