India, June 23 -- According to chatter uncovered on the dark web by cybersecurity research firm Cyfirma, Chinese state-sponsored hacker groups could target Indian businesses and government establishments.

"The whisperings in the dark web and hackers' forums have increased in volume and intensity with actual mentions of Indian targets. When we observed that IoCs (indicators of compromise) were shared, we immediately knew that the threat could be imminent," reportedly said Kumar Ritesh, Founder-CEO of Cyfirma.

According to the cybersecurity firm, plans are afoot to steal sensitive data like trade secrets, launch denial of service attacks and deface websites or launch malicious phishing campaigns targeting Indian government websites and co...