14 DAY TRIAL // More than 70 websites belonging to Indian organizations, government bodies, universities and police were hacked by the cybercriminal called Xtremist.
According to The Hacker News, the Patiala Police was one of victims whose website was defaced by the attackers, the home page being replaced with one containing propagandist messages and claims.
After the codenames of the crooks involved are listed, their main goal is highlighted “Free Kashmir .. Freedom is our goal..// End the Occupation”
Other messages posted on the same page read “This institutionalized impunity with which the killings of civilians by military and police forces in Jammu and Kashmir continues should be a source of shame for India which propagates to be a democracy!”
“We dont want war, take back your men, your tanks and your guns and go back to where you came from, all we ask is for freedom.”
So their purpose is clear. But what exactly did they do?
Upon closer inspection I concluded that the information on the target locations wasn't compromised in any way, only the index.html file being replaced. The Patiala Police's page is still under construction so it's clear why there were no proper security measures implemented.
Other sites, such as the ones belonging to alternative power providers, construction and shipping companies seem to be back online and working properly.
After studying the list of targets, it's clear that no particular companies were targeted, among them being all sorts of businesses that have nothing to do with the conflict. Also, many of the pages are still under construction, this further proving that the marks were chosen at random.
These types of hits have been seen more often lately, where innocent firms fall victims to hackers who want to send out a message. The lesson most website owners should learn from this is that they should invest more time and effort into the protection of their online property. A compromised site could easily ruin ones reputation, making customers fear that they might end up with infected machines.