FB requests from girls could be Pakistan's attempt at snooping, ITBP warns jawans

NEW DELHI: Concerned over Pakistan snooping on jawans through spy apps, the ITBP director general Krishna Chaudhary has issued a directive earlier this week asking all its units posted on the border and sensitive areas not to use any mobile apps, especially Smesh, as their data may be retrieved by Pak-based hackers. Chaudhary has also asked the troops working in field formations "not to accept any unknown friend request, especially from girls on Facebook".

The comes weeks after the Army had issued an advisory asking all its officers and soldiers to not download three applications available on Google Playstore — WeChat, Smesh and Line, on their smart phones to guard against online espionage attempts by foreign intelligence agencies, especially from China and Pakistan as hackers were stealing all data.

Sources say that the Pak-based hackers, who allegedly work for ISI and terrorist organisations, have been targeting security personnel by first sending them Facebook friend requests in the guise of beautiful girls and then asking them to download a particular app to further chat. "What troops have been downloading are usually spy apps and when they start chatting, mobile data like contacts, SMS details, videos and GPS locations appear in their server," said a senior ministry of home affairs official.

ITBP guards 3488 km-long Sino-India Line of Actual Control (LAC) and has huge presence there. "If the details and conversations of troops are compromised, it would be very dangerous," said the officer. Chaudhary stated in his letter to troops, "The fact cannot be denied that some of our troops are using this (Smesh) app without knowing its catastrophic consequences".