14 DAY TRIAL // Hackers affiliated with Anonymous India outfit defaced on Friday the website of BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), telecommunications company, and claim that they made a copy of all the databases.
The action is in protest to Digital India, a government initiative to enable electronic delivery of its services to the citizens and reduce paperwork. One of the goals is also to connect rural areas of the country to broadband Internet.
A project of this size also needs to be deployed with security in mind, which is what the hackers are trying to demonstrate. This deed, however, is also aimed at showing opposition against other activities of the government, such as authorities’ alleged surveillance activities against citizens.
BSNL databases in the hands of the hackers
On Saturday, BSNL’s original homepage was removed by the hackers and replaced with messages to the Indian government, as well as a set of demands.
“There will be no #DigitalIndia until and unless government of India stops their surveillance projects & make their systems secure,” the hackers wrote on the defaced website.
The intruders also said that the admin of the BSNL website left passwords in plain text and that they did not alter the data on the server. “But we have taken a copy of all your databases. Patch up before the chinese get their hands on this. It's a goldmine,” the message continues.
Government given a set of demands
As far as the demands are concerned, India’s Anons asked for the government “to take action against Reliance sending unencrypted data to China via their Jio Chat app,” to stop the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, from moving away from net neutrality.
Additionally, the group demanded the government to terminate surveillance projects and Internet censorship.
Breaching the servers of a national telecommunications company is likely to offer access to millions of user records, which could include highly sensitive payment and account details.
It is unclear what the hackers’ next step will be if the Indian government does not give in to their demands; but if such details have indeed fallen in their hands, the risk is significant.
