Multiple schools in Bharat recently received bomb threats via email. Not just schools but several hospitals in Delhi, the Indira Gandhi International Airport, airports in Ahmedabad Jaipur, and Lucknow, along with Tihar Jail also received bomb threats over emails.
All this has happened within barely a month. Even though these threats have turned out to be a hoax, they raise important questions about the lack of adequate cyber safety and vigilance mechanisms in Bharat’s institutions and organizations.
It all started with nearly 100 schools in Delhi-NCR receiving bomb threats via email about a fortnight back. As multiple schools in Delhi and the National Capital Region received threats over email, warning them of bombs on their premises, schools immediately evacuated the students and sent them back home for safety. Parents were immediately contacted to collect their kids. The school premises were thoroughly inspected in coordination with the police.
The Delhi schools bomb hoax triggered panic amongst parents and mass evacuations of schools even as Delhi Police Officers and Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) teams rushed to the spot and declared the threat to be a hoax after a thorough investigation.
The Delhi schools’ bomb threats incident triggered a spate of such hoax bomb threats at schools in other cities of Bharat including Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Kanpur. Following the incident of eight schools in Bengaluru receiving emails threatening bomb blasts, around 10 schools in Kanpur recently received threatening bomb hoax emails.
Hoax bomb threats through emails targeting Bharat’s public infrastructure and institutions – schools, hospitals, banks, railway stations, etc. aren’t new. In December 2023, an email threatening 11 bombs at 11 sites across Mumbai including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), along with ICICI bank and HDFC bank was reportedly received by the central bank on Tuesday. The senders of the email demanded the resignation of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and threatened to blow up the bank buildings in a bomb blast, if their demands would not be met, as per various media reports.
The bomb threats turned out to be a hoax and the email was reportedly sent from the email id khilafatdotindiaattherategmaildotcom on the RBI Governor’s email id. The threat even though it was a hoax, “serves as a grim reminder of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, masterminded by fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, which claimed 257 lives and grievously injured over 700, with some people suffering disabilities”, as put aptly by a news report by ABP news.
In December 2023, 48 schools in Bengaluru received similar emails claiming that bombs had been kept within the school premises. In a pattern similar to the one seen in Delhi schools, the intent seemed to be of creating panic amongst students, parents, and school fraternity and disrupt the normal functioning of schools, as per media reports.
Email bomb threats targeting Bharat’s public infrastructure and institutions like schools and hospitals are a highly serious concern, even if these turn out to be a hoax. The intent of such threats can range from wanting to create large-scale panic and confusion to inciting serious disruptions in Bharat’s public life and tarnishing Bharat’s reputation globally, creating the perception that the country is unsafe and dangerous.
The police and the intelligence authorities are constantly tracking the source of these email threats and the possible involvement of terrorist organizations in the spate of email attacks threatening Bharat’s schools, hospitals, and other public places with bomb blasts. The exact motive of such hoax bomb threats via email is for the investigation agencies to establish, but this certainly signals the need for a concerted mechanism to strengthen cyber surveillance and security in Bharat’s public institutions and organizations.
The panic created after the email threats also shows the lack of preparedness in Bharatiya schools for dealing with such scenarios. The movement of outsiders within the premises is perhaps already considerably regulated in many educational institutions. However, the government should set up some mandatory guidelines for schools to prevent any untoward incident from happening.
It should be mandatory for schools to have CCTVs and routine security checks for screening visitors. Private schools with huge budgets probably have the financial resources and infrastructure to incorporate security checks. However, the government should consider pitching in to help out government schools and small private schools with limited financial resources to put in place such security mechanisms.
Also, most schools in Bharat lack a cyber security mechanism. They need to ensure regular monitoring of emails; there is a need for coordination between the schools to share information and intelligence outputs regarding any such threats to the safety and security of kids. The authorities should consider setting up a joint cyber security and surveillance mechanism connecting schools across Bharat through a common portal so that they can flag their concerns immediately and there can be concerted action in the wake of any such threats issued through the digital medium.
Bharat lacks proactive intervention strategies when it comes to such issues. Our responses are mostly reactive; once an incident comes to light, the police and authorities jump into action but we lack a mechanism to deal with such threats proactively. For this, there needs to be a comprehensive security policy put in place for public institutions and places like schools, hospitals, banks, railway stations, etc.
There needs to be a mechanism for undertaking comprehensive risk assessments, collaboration with law enforcement agencies, regular drills, etc. for strengthening security mechanisms in Bharat’s public institutions and public infrastructure hotspots.
An article recently published by The Indian Express offers a few useful suggestions to tackle the menace of issues like hoax bomb threats through email in schools. Bharat needs to have a cyber ministry along the lines of other countries to effectively deal with the threat of cyber-attacks and threats regarding real-time attacks issued through the digital medium.
“The fountainhead of any action is the creation of a framework for governance at the national level to ensure responsibility and accountability for the protection of the national cyberspace. In the present system, while individual ministries are doing well in implementing their respective mandates, the accountability aspect is missing. It may be prudent to recall the cyber attack in the UK in 2003 by a state-backed actor, where during the inquiry, everyone kept passing the buck and no one was found responsible. This is when they decided to create the National Cyber Security Centre under a CEO. It may be a useful exercise for the government to take a stock of some of the recent cyber attacks and examine the flaws in the present system with a view to create an efficient governance structure”, says the article.
The spate of hoax bomb threats to Bharat’s public institutions and infrastructure within the period of an election month cannot be a mere coincidence. The aim of such hoaxes is to create panic within the public and to make people suspicious of the system; it’s natural that such scenarios make citizens doubt the efficiency of the structures of governance. Thus, a spate of hoax bomb threats during election time targeting schools, hospitals, etc. is undoubtedly aimed at disrupting public life and spreading chaos and confusion to somehow negatively influence the election cycle.
With the phenomenal rise of social media, such news spreads like wildfire, thus creating further panic and a steady stream of fake news. Thus, the government must formulate specific mechanisms to proactively track such threats issued through the online medium rather than merely resorting to reactive mechanisms.
