State-run telco MTNL’s website Mumbai last week was allegedly hacked by a Pakistani hacker operating from Australia. The website was restored soon after the attack, though some users complained of facing problems in accessing the site.
“Hacked homepage if in cache of that customer, should be refreshed, otherwise it will continue to show old page,” MTNL spokesperson had said.
MTNL’s compromised website showed the following message: “MrCreepy Was Here. Napsters CrEw. Happy Independence Day Pakistan. http://Facebook.com/m3creepy. Greets: SEEKER, Dr.FREAK, MKHAN SWATI, And All Pakistani Hackers :D”.
Other MTNL websites including the corporate website remained unaffected. The hacker claimed on its Facebook page that it had attacked websites Pune Traffic Police and janwani.org (a voluntary group).
It’s not the first time MTNL website has fallen victim to hacking. Last year, Anonymous took down the MTNL website through a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. After the attack, MTNL’s corporate website could not be accessed.
Hackers have continued to target the Indian government websites. This year (as of June 2013), as many as 78 government websites fell prey to hackers, according to official figures revealed Minister of State for Communications & IT Milind Deora in the Parliament.
“As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 308, 371 and 78 government websites were hacked during the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 (up to June) respectively,” Deora revealed in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
New figures, however, show a small decline in the number of cyber attacks. According to Jay Bavisi, Global President, EC-Council, the decline shows India has realised the importance of securing themselves from cyber attacks.
“It is great to see that there is a small decline in the number of websites that were hacked as well as the number of security breaches as compared to 2012. This may point to the fact that India has realized the importance of securing themselves from cyber attacks and the menace these attacks can cause,” he said.
“However, the point is to quickly reach a point where the number is negligible especially where critical data of the government is concerned, and for this there needs to be an army of cyber warriors with apt training ready to ward of all attacks. We hope by next year the situation gets even better and stronger” .
Source: Times of India