4,000 cyber-attacks on India’s Botanical Survey website in 2 months
Botanical Survey of India director AA Mao said most of the 4,000 cyber-attacks on its website appeared to originate from China.
There were 4,000 cyber-attacks on the website of the government-funded Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the country’s premier plant taxonomic organisation, over the last two months, a huge spike from the less than 10 attacks that took place in a month before the organisation digitised its rich repository in September this year, a top BSI official said on Wednesday.
To be sure, the cyber-attacks were blocked.
BSI director AA Mao said most of the attacks appear to originate from China and some other Asian countries.
“Earlier we hardly ever faced any attempts cyber-attacks. But since the time we digitized all valuable information available in our centuries-old repository such attacks have shot up several times. Most of the attacks originated from China,” the BSI director told HT..
The BSI, the custodian of the largest repository of centuries-old textile designs, natural dyes and plant drawings, in the country completed the digital archival of all its collections preserved till date in September. India is the second Asian country after China to provide open access to its huge collections of type specimens (original specimens collected by scientists and stored in BSI).
The largest proportion of the attacks - 3,300 out of 4,000 - to push malicious codes into the website were aimed at the archive of natural dyes and design. There were at least 550 more attacks on the section which contains detailed taxonomic information about 5,600 Indian plants and a checklist of more than 21,600 plants found in India. The virtual herbarium section encountered around 130 more attacks.
Officials said a quick analysis of the cyber-attacks indicate that most of them were attempts to inject malicious codes and access the passwords. The attacks weren’t successful but in view of the barrage of attempts over the last two months, there is a clear recommendation to upgrade the firewalls to keep out hackers.
In March this year, the government told Parliament about a 300% increase in cyber attacks in the country in 2020 over the previous year. There have been multiple intelligence reports and technical analysis that trace many cyber attacks in India to China.
The BSI collection which appears to have drawn the attention of hackers includes the original set of 15 volumes of 19th-century British businessman Thomas Wardle’s specimens of Fabrics dyed with Indian Dyes. It has information on 4,100 samples of dye patterns, extracted from 64 plants, depicting Indian dying traditions, compiled by Wardle in the 19th century and is considered one of the most comprehensive and complete documentation” said the BSI official.
The archive also contains 18 volumes of textile designs comprising 1,700 samples, starting with turbans, saree, dhoti, trouser, carpet, mosquito curtain, coat, shawl, tent cloth, gowns and even saddle cloths among others, compiled by John Forbes Watson between 1866 and 1874.
The BSI has also digitised the original set of 2,532 plant drawings made by William Roxburgh, a Scottish botanist and physician who was known as ‘Father of Indian Botany’.
“India is the second country after the United Kingdom which made Roxburgh’s drawing online for the public. The digitised materials of the archives are the most accurate means of recording natural specimens and are also easier to store and transport. There are 3,280 life-size botanical paintings other than Roxburgh paintings drawn by Indian artists,” said BSI director Mao.
