 "Hackathon on another kind: A ‘cyber war’ between India and Pakistan?")
Even as gunfire continues to be traded across the India-Pakistan border, violating the ceasefire between the neighbours, a full-blown hacking and defacement war seems to have simultaneously erupted in cyber space. The official website of the Kerala government, www.keralagov.in, was hacked on late Saturday night, allegedly by suspected Pakistani hackers.
The home page of the hacked website showed a picture of India’s national flag being burnt and messages like “Pakistan Zindabad” and “security is just an illusion”. It also carried what appeared to be identity of the hacker; “hacked” by Faisal 1337”, read the page, “We are Team Pak Cyber Attacker”. The Home Page also contained the website address www.Faisal1337.com.
However, preliminary reports suggested the hackers were unable to get past the home page and into the server hosting this website. The cyber wing of the state police has launched a probe into the hacking incident.
Kerala govt’s angst
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Sunday told reporters in Kottayam that the hacking was a “grave issue”. The state-owned Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, which is now repairing the website, said the server had not been hacked.
Tit for tat?
Hours after Faisal’s attack, Indian hackers responded in a massive manner and took down more than 40 Pakistani websites in what was believed to be one of the biggest cyber attacks in recent times. A Facebook post on the official page of the Indian Hackers group, called “The Mallu Cyber Soldiers”, took responsibility. The message read:
“Message to Script Kiddies of Pakistan.... Do not touch Indian Websites!!! Now your 46 Pakistan government websites got crashed and 4 educational websites got defaced. This is a small payback for hacking kerala.gov.in. Faisal 1337 go home kiddo, you are F*cked.”
The hacked Pakistani sites
The list of Pakistani websites that were hacked include the official website of Pakistan, the official website of the President of Pakistan, the official website of the Pakistani Railways, the website of the Pakistani cabinet, and the Pakistani cultural department website. Several other official websites of Pakistan remain inaccessible as of now. All of these websites had text and theme similar to the one used by Faisal.
A serial hacker from Pakistani
A look at Faisal’s official Facebook page reveals that he has in the past hacked into several Indian websites. The identity of Faisal, as well as the group of Indian hackers who launched the counter attack, remain unclear.
