The hackers claim to have deleted a number of 250 databases

Dec 13, 2012 11:58 GMT  ·  By

The official website of BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) – India’s state-owned telecommunications company – has been hacked by Anonymous India. The hacktivists have not only defaced the main website, but they’ve also leaked the credentials that allowed them to gain access to the firm’s databases.

In their defacement message, the hackers have also revealed the fact that they’ve deleted all the 250 databases stored on BSNL’s servers.

According to The Hacker News, Anonymous India has targeted BSNL for several reasons. One of them is that they want to protest against censorship.

The hackers have also demanded the removal of section 66A from the IT Act of 2000. That’s because, over the past period, several individuals have been arrested for violating paragraphs from the section that prohibits the sending of messages that can be considered offensive or false.

One of the most controversial arrests is the one of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi. He has been detained for violating section 66A of the IT Act after publishing several cartoons representing Indian corruption.

The Hacker News highlights that most of the passwords leaked by the hackers are very weak. The fact that passwords such as “password” or “Password123” have been used in many places might have been leveraged by the attackers to gain access to their systems.

At the time of writing, the website of BSNL was down.

This is not the first time when the systems of the telecoms company are breached. In October 2011, a Pakistani hacker called KhantastiC haX0r pulled off a similar stunt, but at the time, he only defaced the main webpage.

In October 2012, security researcher Prashant Uniyal told Softpedia that he had identified several vulnerabilities in the sites of Indian telecommunications operators, including BSNL.

At the time, he explained that none of the companies responded to his reports.