Hacker groups have penetrated the sensitive computer networks of the Navy after which an inquiry was launched against naval officers in the Vishakhaptnam-based Eastern Naval Command.

Around seven months back, a Board of Inquiry (BOI) was ordered against some officers in the Eastern Command after it was found that some of the computer systems were bugged and had been penetrated by hacker groups, Navy officials said.

They said the BoI has now completed its investigations and has sent its findings to the Navy Headquarters which will take a decision on the action to be taken regarding these officers on the basis of the BoI recommendations.

Some data has also been lost and efforts are on to find out the extent to which vital information was compromised due to these bugs, officials said.

They said the bugs were detected during checks carried out by naval cyber security teams.

However, a Navy spokesperson said the case has got no connection with the INS Arihant as it is a totally separate project and has connection with the Eastern naval command.

This is the second such case of IT security breach which has come to light this year in the Navy as another BoI had recommended action against four senior officers for allegedly possessing and leaking classified information through social networking sites.

Four officers from the technical branch were tried by the BoI for allegedly possessing classified information on their personal computers.

They were also found to be sharing this on social networking sites such as Facebook.