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Why it is a grave error to call arrested BrahMos engineer an ISI agent
Nishant Agarwal didn't seem to even know that his three Facebook friends may have relations with Pakistan.
11-10-2018
ANKIT KUMAR
Nishant Agarwal, a 27-year-old senior system engineer working with the research and development wing of the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited was arrested from Nagpur for allegedly supplying sensitive information to Pakistan-based operatives.
Nishant Agarwal has been designated as an ISI agent by mainstream media. (Source: Twitter)
As soon as the details of his arrest were made public, Agarwal was immediately designated as an ISI agent and ISI mole by the mainstream media. According to the probe so far, the investigators suspect that Agarwal was honey-trapped through ISI-managed Facebook accounts.
He also reportedly got a lucrative job offer through one of these contacts and was asked to submit his professional details through a link which installed malware into his system and may have been used to extract data through a programme called remote access Trojan (RAT).
The question that arises is — is it okay to call Agarwal an ISI agent?
Well no, not yet. Here’s why:
The social engineering
To start with, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) engineer didn't seemingly even know that his three Facebook friends may have any relation or affiliation with Pakistan.
(BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s DRDO and Military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.)
According to sources familiar with the investigation, it has been found that Agarwal was in touch with at least three individuals through Facebook, each of these Facebook accounts represented a young female of Indian origin, who lived and worked in US, Europe and Canada.
Nishant Agarwal could be a victim of social engineering, not an ISI agent. (Source: India Today)
As much as the investigators and my fellow journalists would like to use the classical spicy phrase of ‘honey trap’ in each espionage case, the professionals in this field have a different term for it, they call it "social engineering".
Social engineering, according to an insider is "a process under which a person's social profiling is used to target the vulnerable aspects using (often) virtual identities".
Clearly in this case, identities of three independent NRI girls were used, who promised Agarwal a better career and life. One of the profiles used to target Agarwal was that of an aspiring musician from Mumbai, who studied and worked in the US.
These accounts have been active for four-five years and have no signs of any relationship with Pakistan.
The technology tango
In these cases, what starts as a casual conversation with a friendly woman on a social media platform, soon leads to a trap which often goes unnoticed by the victims.
Sometimes, it only takes a PDF attachment or a simple picture in your email attachment to turn somebody's laptop and mobile phone into a spy device where the compromised device's data is extracted by remote command.
Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, has a history of using technology with social engineering for espionage. Amnesty International and US-based security firm Lookout earlier this year published independent reports on how Pakistan-based actors used 'similar' technology to spy on foreign diplomats, military institutions and its own civilians.
https://www.dailyo.in/variety/brahm...pakistani-agent-honey-trap/story/1/27181.html
Nishant Agarwal didn't seem to even know that his three Facebook friends may have relations with Pakistan.
11-10-2018
ANKIT KUMAR
Nishant Agarwal, a 27-year-old senior system engineer working with the research and development wing of the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited was arrested from Nagpur for allegedly supplying sensitive information to Pakistan-based operatives.
As soon as the details of his arrest were made public, Agarwal was immediately designated as an ISI agent and ISI mole by the mainstream media. According to the probe so far, the investigators suspect that Agarwal was honey-trapped through ISI-managed Facebook accounts.
He also reportedly got a lucrative job offer through one of these contacts and was asked to submit his professional details through a link which installed malware into his system and may have been used to extract data through a programme called remote access Trojan (RAT).
The question that arises is — is it okay to call Agarwal an ISI agent?
Well no, not yet. Here’s why:
The social engineering
To start with, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) engineer didn't seemingly even know that his three Facebook friends may have any relation or affiliation with Pakistan.
(BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s DRDO and Military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.)
According to sources familiar with the investigation, it has been found that Agarwal was in touch with at least three individuals through Facebook, each of these Facebook accounts represented a young female of Indian origin, who lived and worked in US, Europe and Canada.
As much as the investigators and my fellow journalists would like to use the classical spicy phrase of ‘honey trap’ in each espionage case, the professionals in this field have a different term for it, they call it "social engineering".
Social engineering, according to an insider is "a process under which a person's social profiling is used to target the vulnerable aspects using (often) virtual identities".
Clearly in this case, identities of three independent NRI girls were used, who promised Agarwal a better career and life. One of the profiles used to target Agarwal was that of an aspiring musician from Mumbai, who studied and worked in the US.
These accounts have been active for four-five years and have no signs of any relationship with Pakistan.
The technology tango
In these cases, what starts as a casual conversation with a friendly woman on a social media platform, soon leads to a trap which often goes unnoticed by the victims.
Sometimes, it only takes a PDF attachment or a simple picture in your email attachment to turn somebody's laptop and mobile phone into a spy device where the compromised device's data is extracted by remote command.
Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, has a history of using technology with social engineering for espionage. Amnesty International and US-based security firm Lookout earlier this year published independent reports on how Pakistan-based actors used 'similar' technology to spy on foreign diplomats, military institutions and its own civilians.
https://www.dailyo.in/variety/brahm...pakistani-agent-honey-trap/story/1/27181.html
