“If it is found so, then it definitely compromises the Indian platform”. It is to be some of the most advanced submarines in their class. The data leak reported by The Australian pertains to these very submarines.
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“A lot of volume is there but that does not mean anything. We are certain the data leak was not from our side”, an MDL official said.
“It was subsequently passed by a third party to a second company in the region before being sent on a data disk by regular mail to a company in Australia”. “The loss of data is a serious issue”, he had said.
The leaked documents cover the Scorpene-class model and do not contain any details of the vessel now being designed for the Australian fleet. It allows them to understand everything about the submarines. The documents also include highly sensitive information on noise levels produced by the submarine.
Among the 22,400 pages of leaked documents, there were also thousands of pages on the Scorpene’s sensors and thousands more on its communication and navigation systems.
“This (the report) came to my knowledge at 12 midnight, it is a case of hacking. So we will find out all this”, Parrikar said.
French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler said authorities in France are taking the leak of data very seriously and that they will work in close cooperation with India.
The French government source said security procedures would be strengthened for all employees going to work in Australia to ensure one person did not have access to so many documents.
The 22,400 pages of data seen by The Australian contain the key secret stealth capabilities of the Indian submarines.
“The documents that have been posted. have been examined and do not pose any security compromise as the vital parameters have been blacked out”, the defense ministry said in a statement.
“It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India”. “We have asked the Indian naval chief to investigate the matter and give a detailed report about the leak”.
“It affects the security of the country”.
DCNS, which is 35-per cent owned by Thales, said it was working to determine if any harm had been caused to clients with a view to drawing up an action plan.
DCNS told AFP it was aware of the articles and said “national security authorities” had launched an inquiry into the matter.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to deflect concerns about the leak, touting the high security standards in Australia, where the submarine will be built. India has forked over as much as $3.45 billion to French defence for designing the Scorpene exclusive for India.
Today, a source in the French government told Reuters that the papers were not leaked, but were in fact stolen in 2011 by a former French employee training navy personnel in India.
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