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'Pakistan' hackers target India's top police agency

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New Delhi: In a major embarrassment, the website of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was hacked on Friday night by programmers identifying themselves as "Pakistani Cyber Army".

The home page of the CBI website had a message from the 'Pakistani Cyber Army' warning the Indian Cyber Army not to attack their websites.

The CBI website, supposed to be one of the most secure websites, is connected to the command centre of world police organisation - Interpol - 24x7.

The message from the hackers also spoke about the filtering controls provided by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), a body which mans computer servers across the country. It also claims to have hacked another 270 websites.

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Intelligence agencies have been often warning the government that proper cyber security was not being ensured in government offices and that no security audit was being carried out.

The website has still not been restored. In a late night statement, the investigating agency said, "CBI is aware that its official website has been hacked and defaced. An inquiry has been launched and necessary remedial measures are underway to restore it."

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said that the cyber attack on the CBI website is serious issue and that he would look into it. "These are important issues, we will look into it," Sibal said. (Watch)

Speaking on the issue, Supreme Court advocate and cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said the hacking of CBI website is an act of cyber war. "I think this is not a mere hacking incident. It is a step towards a cyber war," he said.


CBI website hacked by 'Pak Cyber Army'

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December 5, 2010, 5:17am

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Cyber-attackers who identified themselves as the "Pakistan Cyber Army" have hacked the website of India's top police agency, officials said on Saturday.

The website of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was hacked by programmers who left a message saying that the attack was in revenge for similar Indian assaults on Pakistani sites, Press Trust of India said.

The hackers signed their message on the Indian police website: "Long Live Pakistan."

CBI authorities said they were working to restore the site, which offered information to the public.

The spokeswoman said she could not comment on Indian media reports that more than 200 other Indian sites had also been attacked by Pakistani hackers.

"We came to know the CBI site had been compromised Friday night," the spokeswoman told AFP, asking not to be named. "It will take us a couple of days to restore the site."

She said she could not immediately say who was responsible for the attack.

The CBI has "registered a case" and is investigating the attack, she said.

The message posted on the CBI site said the attack was "in response to the Pakistani websites hacked by 'Indian Cyber Army'," the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

"Hacked hahaa funny," the message said. "Let us see what you investigating agency so called CBI can do" (sic).

Hackers had also infiltrated the server of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which maintains most of the government's websites, PTI reported.

In August, a group also calling itself the "Pakistan Cyber Army" hacked into the website of independent Indian MP Vijay Mallya, a flamboyant liquor baron, who is also head of Kingfisher Airlines.

The group claims to have hacked a number of Indian websites in recent years, including India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, in retaliation for Indian hackers accessing Pakistan sites.

Indian IT specialists have long lamented what they say is a lack of awareness about Internet security across the country, including in the corridors of power.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, said it would have been easy for attackers to get into the CBI public site as it was "not a particularly sensitive" one.

The Indian government "has a very low level of cyber awareness and cyber security. We don't take cyber security as seriously as the rest of the world," he said.

He added that the government needed to "make at least 10 times the current level of investment to get their standards to match the rest of the world."

According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, a government agency that tracks IT security issues, more than 3,600 Indian websites were hacked in the first six months of this year.
 
Honestly I believe this is an effort for nothing.. we destroy Indian Sites and Indians destroy ours and no side gains anything but scene of "achievement" for making other loose. Come-on people, lets spend these energies somewhere better..

Some political person from either side must take account of it and stop this new kind of fight this very point. Its NEEDED!
 
Honestly I believe this is an effort for nothing.. we destroy Indian Sites and Indians destroy ours and no side gains anything but scene of "achievement" for making other loose. Come-on people, lets spend these energies somewhere better..

Some political person from either side must take account of it and stop this new kind of fight this very point. Its NEEDED!

i agree. however i think most of the attacks are by non governmental people looking for quick fame.
 
From Hackernews

What Next : Unofficial War Between Pakistan Cyber Army & Indian Cyber Army Heats Up !

The cyber war between the traditional rivals is intensifying. This has happened before, is currently happening and may happen again.

How it Starts?

If we look at past events, cyber war between both the courtiers starts on an event of national importance (of either country).
On such important day (in recent most case it was November 26) junior hackers of either side get active and deface some websites of opposite country (let’s suppose country A). In response to which, hackers from the attacked country hack-back some websites of the country A.

In all previous examples the Cyber War is started by junior hackers, who do such kind of activities to gain the fame. When the news reaches the media, (press, electronic and online) the issued gets hyped-up and this is where senior hackers come into play.
This is how it starts, hundreds of websites get defaced – it keeps growing until some hackers with connections to both sides of the border step-in and ask the activist hackers to stop the non-sense.

History of Cyber Wars:
The term “Cyber War” was first used in 1997, when both the countries remained in state of cyber war for five years or so. Then, from Pakistan’s side the war was fought by PHC “Pakistan Hackers Club” and Gforce.
These two groups were responsible for defacing hundreds of Indian websites, and broke all global records of cyber war history. Both of the Pakistani Groups then settled issues with NEO, an Indian hacker to conclude that 5 years running Cyber war.


Later in 2008, a group of script kiddies (junior hackers) called HMG defaced OGRA’s website, in response to which PCA (or Pakistan Cyber Army) hacked at least 5 Indian websites including their Oil and Natural Gas website.

This didn’t stop here and hackers from both the countries got active and defaced hundreds of websites of both the sides.
hacking agreement thumb War Between Pakistan Cyber Army & ICA Heats Up, What Next? As before, after well fought battle, hackers
from both the sides settled the dispute with the issuance of a joint statement.
In fact, there were reports that both the parties signed a pact and decided not to get involved in Cyber War again.

Role of Media
There is this important thing to note: These hackers do such kind of activates to get noticed and for the fame. Obviously they are not get paid to hack websites, neither they bear personal grudges.
However, when hacking news become the leading story, hackers are further propelled to carry on the activity. It actually incentivizes them to not to stop here.
If we peek at Indian media these days, they are non-stop beating the issue of CBI hack. Which is doing no good but fanning the fire in Indian Hackers.
It is anticipated that Indian hackers will back-fire on massive scale, for which Pakistan Cyber Army is already prepared (we are told).Once again pathetic indian media creating cyber war hysteria.:angry:

What both the Government Should Do?

First thing: Secure your servers, they are real weak at security. This is why even the junior hackers get into your systems so easily.
By this I don’t mean that hackers are just the kiddies and can’t deface big websites, in fact a hacker’s group from Pakistan has defaced Google’s website in the past.
But still our Government websites are real HALWA. And by the way, its not only Pakistani Government – Indian Government websites are piece of cake as well.
This is evident from a statement from Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, given to Al Jazeera. He said:

"The Indian government has a very low level of cyber awareness and cyber security. We don’t take cyber security as seriously as the rest of the world,” he said.
“Make at least 10 times the current level of investment to get their standards to match the rest of the world”.

Same is the message for Pakistani authorities. It must push NTC to escalate the level of web. Better try some enhanced protocols and firewalls. Cisco may help them in this.
Next thing up: Get these hackers into some productive work. Help them build their careers and making then develop some anti-hack products. This is how they gonna get the reward and won’t run useless fame.

What Next?
We can anticipate that this isn’t going to end here. We may see more hacking news this week too. But eventually, they will have to stop (if they are sensible). So it’s better to stop at earliest.
 
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Thanks Fox.... Atleast it proves who started it. Because some are trying to act innocent here. And saying they are IT power and they are only retaliating.
 

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