Indian National Security Guard Targeted by Hackers

The website of the Indian National Security Guard (NSG) was defaced by hackers and the email accounts of some officers were compromised.

NSG is one of India's special response units that is mainly involved in counter-terrorism activities. It is headquartered in Mehramnagar, Palam.

Following the hack, all officers at the headquarters were ordered to avoid using the Internet.

"The situation is not alarming. There was report of some damage of the NSG website following which cyber experts were called in to investigate into the matter.

"It is too early to say if there was any data theft. But the services have not been restored yet," a NSG spokesperson told Times of India.

The Indian government has been repeatedly targeted by hackers in recent weeks who acted as part of Anonymous' Operation India.

The notorious hacktivist group launched OpIndia at the beginning of June in support for the anti-corruption movement led by political activist Baba Ramdev. Anonymous stepped in after the government's crackdown on protesters turned violent.

So far, the Indian National Informatics Centre (NIC) which is responsible for the computer network infrastructure of central and local governments, as well as other administrative bodies, was hit twice.

Once its website was defaced by Anonymous with its manifesto, while the second time the organization's network was infiltrated and administrative login credentials for many official websites were leaked online.

"We are not Terrorists. We just want our words to be heard," the hackers wrote at the time. However, so far there is no indication that the NSG website was hit by people linked to Anonymous.

The NSG spokesperson said that the agency asked government specialists from other departments to scan its website for vulnerabilities and upgrade its security.