Wars beyond borders

Early morning on Thursday last week, I woke up to a phone call from my parents. It was a day after India-Pakistan tensions had escalated. My mother asked, “Do you have cash on you? I know you usually only pay by cards or UPI, but there are rumors. They are attacking our payment systems now. So use cash.”

To pacify her worry, I said, “Okay, I will get cash from the ATM.” She asked me not to do that. Apparently, ATMs were under attack, too.

Later in the evening, she said it was a hoax. Some fear-mongers had been spreading such rumors on WhatsApp.

This incident brought a lot of thoughts to my head. 

• How easy it is to spread rumors nowadays!
• What could I have done if a cyber attack were indeed true?
• What other types of threats emerge in a war-like situation?

Let’s brood over each thought one by one.

Rumors first. When you hear something unexpected, sensational, horrific, or negative, you tend to give more of your attention to it. The more vividly a lie is told, the more convinced you are to believe it.

Read this WhatsApp forward, for example.

The message is alarming, something that affects almost everyone. It is also vivid in that it explains how exactly the virus is spreading, that is, by clicking a video in an email. And it has an actionable for the reader at the end – to send the message to all computer users.

So, how can one tell that it is a fake message? It is poorly written and does not have proper formatting, which proves it is probably not coming from an official source.

Of course, someone could have read it from a reliable or official source and forwarded it to their family groups in a simple language.

What’s the best you can do? Verify such information. 

First of all, are news channels carrying this information? If not, it is most likely fake.

But the recent tensions also made us question the reliability of news channels. Their headlines made statements of complete destruction, while the actual content was just discussing what would happen in the case of such destruction. Some news channels themselves fell prey to fake news as they broadcast fake, doctored, or wrong footage about the semi-war situation we were in.

It is usually the urge to be the first one to report when news channels broadcast something without fully verifying. Those scary headlines are basically clickbait – an attempt to make you stay on the channel, to make you click on a video, or to make you read a news piece. When viewership is the metric being chased and audience attention span is thinning, a sensational title or headline is the lowest hanging fruit for any channel.

So, amid so much clutter, where do you find out what is happening along the border? I was relying on the Twitter handle of the Ministry of Defence. They have an Instagram account, too, if you prefer watching rather than reading your news. You could also check out “PIB Fact Check” accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. These accounts are handled by the various Government departments, so you can rely on them.

Now comes the second thought. What could I have done in case of a cyber attack on our payment systems? I would have used only cash if I had any. If not, I could have called a friend for help. Or I could have bought groceries on credit from the local grocery store (it’s nice to be friends with the local shopkeeper, hence learnt).

Maybe I would have gone to the bank and withdrawn cash by writing a check to myself.

I could maybe use credit cards, because credit card transactions can be reversed if fraud is detected. One thing is certain. Going forward, I will keep a little cash on me at all times.

But our payment systems are not the only ones vulnerable to cyberattacks. Our social media accounts, email, Aadhar card, phones, stock broking, and demat accounts could all come under attack.

The most basic thing to do would be to not click on any link and share your personal data, even if it is a legitimate link. Hold off for a few days, at least until your bank, broker, etc. assure you that all IPs from the rival country have been blocked.

And lastly, the third thought. What other types of threats emerge amid a war-like situation? How are wars waged beyond the borders?

Propaganda/information wars: States are often accused of spreading misinformation in rival countries by creating fake accounts and inciting internal conflicts. The idea is to weaken the social fabric and break internal unity. A country that is internally weak may find it difficult to focus administrative and economic resources on defending its border.

Economic warfare/sanctions: A country may choose not to trade with any country that trades with its rival country. This is a tricky situation, and may not usually be a tool available to economically weak countries. The sanctions imposed by the US and Europe might influence the trade relations among other countries. For example, the US trade embargo on Cuba, which started in 1958, discouraged several non-US countries from investing in Cuba.

War of resources: When India announced that it was holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. What does that mean? As part of the treaty, in very simplistic terms, India and Pakistan could freely use the water from rivers that originated in one country and flowed into the other. India announced measures like building dams on its rivers in the Indus region, which could block the flow of water into Pakistan. The Indus Waters Treaty has been held in abeyance for the first time ever since it was signed in 1960, in light of the recent tensions between India and Pakistan.

As my “what would I have done” or “what could have happened” rant nears it end, I have one final reflection – It is touching how the human mind starts thinking when a doomsday scenario seems like a real possibility.