14 DAY TRIAL // Pakistani hackers have defaced over 250 Indian websites this past weekend, including that of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in retaliation to a similar mass attack from a group called the “Indian Cyber Army.”
The incident occurred during the night of December 3 and affected the websites of as much as 270 businesses, schools and other organizations.
According to Sify News, www.cbi.gov.in was the only government website hit and the hackers, who called themselves the “Pakistani Cyber Army” used the occassion to mock India’s premier investigative agency.
“This attempt is in response to the Pakistani websites hacked by ‘Indian Cyber Army’. We told u before too... we are sleeping but not dead,” the hackers wrote on the compromised CBI site.
“Back off kids or we will smoke ur doors off like we did before... let us see what you investigating agency so called CBI can do,” they added.
The message also claimed that root access was obtained on the National Informatics Centre (NIC) server hosting the website.
CBI and NIC officials convened for an emergency meeting to discuss the intrusion. It was determined that the attack was limited to the CBI site and no NIC server had been compromised.
The agency filed a complaint with its own cyber crime unit and a full investigation was launched. “We have registered a case with the cyber crime cell of the CBI under the relevant sections of law,” a CBI official said.
“Efforts are underway to restore the website with the help of the NIC and the CBI cyber security experts,” he added.
The attack comes after a group called the Indian Cyber Army defaced 36 Pakistani government websites last week, including those of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Navy and National Accountability Bureau.
The website of the Pakistani National Response Center for Cyber Crimes (NR3C), which is operated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), was also defaced earlier this year, although by a notorious group of Pakistani defacers known as PAKbugs.