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Pakistan-based cyber hackers on Tuesday hacked 24 websites of Chhattisgarh government, including the state police's website."
RAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing effort to digitalize India is facing a challenge with neighbouring Pakistan unleashing a cyberwar by hacking and defacing 24 websites of Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday.
State websites, including cgprosecution.gov.in, sericulture.cgstate.gov.in, choice.gov.in, cgvyapam.choice.gov.in, cglabour.gov.in and others, were hacked by Pakistan-based hackers.
The home pages of these websites were defaced and displayed Pakistan's flag with a remark saying 'Rummy Khan was here, Jux a security round'. The websites were taken down immediately by the state government.
On visiting Rummy Khan's Facebook page, TOI found that he had posted the mirror link of all hacked website that counted 24 of them.
There were many other mirror links found of hacked websites on FB page of Rummy Khan and another hacker of PCA. (NIT) Chhattisgarh was hacked and defaced by a Pakistan-based hacker.
The homepage was defaced with a warning "Hacked Pak Cyber Attackers" and with a slogan at the bottom "Pakistan Zindabad" followed by "nothing harmed just defaced and deleted some vulnerable files, we are Muslim hackers, we hack for cause, not for fun; contact us."
TOI in its reports had alerted quoting a Pakistani hacker called Faisal Afzal that Pakistan-based hackers had launched cyberwar against India while PM Modi's Digital India Week was going on.
Pakistani hackers had then hacked Chhattisgarh NIT's website twice, mocking at low security of Indian websites and had threatened of more such cyberattacks.
Talking to TOI, cyberexpert Mohit Sahu, said, "Team of Pakistan Cyber Attackers (PCA) had hacked website of Kerala government last Sunday mocking at the vulnerability of Indian websites while Modi has been promoting about going digital. They threatened that Indian websites will be trolled till PM Modi claims of Digital India."
It's going to take lot of time to recover data and the websites as they are in large number and major damage has been done. The hacker has defaced them from back-door which makes them vulnerable even after the sites are recovered and the hacker claims to know it.
After Kerala government's site was hacked, Indian hackers in retaliation had hacked around 250 important websites of Pakistan government including Pakistani telecom authority and others.
The hacking triggered flurry of online activity leading to cyberwar between the two, and Chhattisgarh websites became the next target for Pakistani hackers, Mohit said.
'The Mallu Cyber Soldiers' New World Hacktivists, Hell Shield Hackers and Interanon are few of the Indian cybersoldiers or hackers.
"Indian websites lag behind in security and it is not valued as it costs them a bit more to hire an expert. Almost every one, every company, institution has a website, which gives a happy hunting ground for Pak hackers. It's true Indian kids' noob hits Pak sites, but they have a lower strike rate. Government websites use open source tools like drupal, joomla and wordpress to build their websites, but never update it even after messages flash on the screen."
Mohit explained that the server for choice.gov.in and police departments were same and connected to several other websites, that's why the hacker succeeded in hacking so many sites at the same time. "And even if they are recovered, the sites can be hacked again due to low security, like they did with NIT website."
Mohit said that if India aims to go digital, it should also be prepared for the cyber battle and should be armed with security and cyberexperts.
Raipur range inspector general of police said that GP Singh said that the webmaster has been alerted and will be restored very soon.
"Pak has launched cyberwar. While state police site hasn't lost any data, upgrading the security in all websites is essential now." Singh said.
TOI chatted with Rummy on Facebook where he said, "Chhattisgarh websites are being run on old version of drupal and are maintained under one server. By hacking them I want to convey message to security people who look after the sites about their vulnerability. It's time to wake up."
Pakistani hackers deface 24 Chhattisgarh government websites - Times of India
