India's net worth defaced

Cyber criminals hacked into 900 websites in March alone

Cyber criminals hacked into 900 websites in March alone

India is in the middle of a war, virtually. It's not just the Maoists or cross-border terrorists that the government should worry about, because a wave of cyber attacks has hit the Indian cyberspace like never before.

According to statistics by Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In), which handles computer security incidents in the country, hackers wrecked and defaced over 900 Indian websites in March, raising serious concerns of cyber security threats from neighbouring countries.

Nine hundred and one websites were defaced last month compared to 510 in February this year. Recently, there were reports of Chinese hackers cracking into sensitive Indian government department websites.
Website defacement is usually carried out by the substitution of the home page of a site by a system cracker that breaks into a web server and alters the hosted website creating one of its own. The hacker often swaps the site matter with his own message or completely kills the site's content.

Recent reports suggest that Chinese hackers have swiped sensitive data from Indian defence and diplomatic establishments. Earlier this week, Telecom Minister A Raja had stressed on the need for strengthening cyber laws and online information security and had asked for suggestions on the same.

Notably at the end of March, more than 91 websites were mutilated within 48 hours by Pakistani hackers. Analysts say Doctor Dan and Doctor Neo are back. The duo claim to be a part of the Pakistan Net Army (PNA) that defaced the Taxila Business School website on March 23. Cyber crime experts are of the opinion that several websites have been defaced by these hackers in recent times.

As a signature, they leave obnoxious messages on the websites saying 'Hacked by your Father Dr Neo and Dr

Hackers' domain

In March, out of the 901 websites defaced, 590 were with the domain name .in. The other domains that were defaced include .com, .in, .org and .net. In February, the numbers were 510, of which 346 were with domains name .in.

Dan son of Pakistan' and images and logo of the Pakistan Net Army.

Himanshu Tiwari, a cyber crime expert working with New Delhi Cyber Cell in Gurgaon said, "They (PNA) hacked more than 91 websites in India in a span of 48 hours recently, including two from Rajasthan. This indicates their far wider reach," he said.

After analysing the hacked websites, Tiwari said there is no perfect uniformity in the hacked portals. "It seems that they have devised a tool for randomly choosing websites," he noted. The message on 'Noorpaperarts' was different from 'Taxila' for example. It seems hackers are working in varioust teams," he added.

Chinks in web security?

In a recent report, researchers based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto said an India-focused spy operation seemingly based out of China's Sichuan province hacked into computers across India and in Indian missions abroad. The cyber criminals apparently got away with information on Indian missile systems gathered from independent analysts. They also obtained a year's worth of Dalai Lama's personal e-mail messages. According to the report, Indian Embassy computers in Kabul, Moscow and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and at the High Commission of India in Abuja, Nigeria, all came under attack. Also compromised were computers used by the Indian Military Engineer Services in Bengdubi, Calcutta, Bangalore and Jalandhar; the 21 Mountain Artillery Brigade in Assam and three air force bases; and computers at two Indian military colleges.