India no longer a soft state; hackers strike back

MUMBAI, INDIA: In a befitting tit for tat reply to the hackers who have been defacing our websites, cyber warriors from India had launched a counter attack and hacked nearly 250 Pakistani websites.

Indian hackers seem to have launched a concerted counter attack, in response to a call for revenge. “If the government can’t do it, we would do it. We are here to defend India, non-profit. They hacked our government site, and we knocked Pakistan offline,” claimed a message from Hell Shield Hackers.

It is learnt that the Indian hackers started the counter attack, ‘#OpPak’, in response to the defacing of www.kerala.gov.in, and broke into more than 200 Pakistan websites, including Pak President’s official website  pakistan.gov.in; Sate Development Organisation; culture.gov.pk and e-government.gov.pk.

On pastebin.com, Indian hackers continue to post a long list of Pak websites they brought down on Sunday, in retaliation of the defacement of kerala.gov.in.  After cracking the official website of Pakistan Government, the ‘hacktivists’ claimed, “Indian hackers haven’t cracked a single Pakistani site after August 15, 2015. But, Faisal Afzal hacked www.kerala.gov.in. Dude, We are not sleeping. If you even touch one Indian site, we would crush you up. .Now feel the heat pakistan.gov.pk hacked.”

According to media reports the unofficial cyber war between the two countries began in 2010, and is waged by patriotic hackers on both sides, every day.

Cyber security expert Benild Joseph said, “Cracking of the Kerala Government website exposes the vulnerability of our official websites. It was just defacement and the officials concerned claim that the server is safe. Yet, the incident calls for a better cyber security mechanism. Since no expert can ensure full security, constant vigil and awareness about the latest vulnerabilities are the key to ensuring security.”

“Though India is one among the top 10 IT nations, we are very weak in cyber security. It calls for a long-term plan to groom cyber security professionals by including hacking in the curriculum,” he warned.