Hitting back, Indian hackers deface Pakistani websites

On Republic Day, more than 2000 Indian websites were defaced by Pakistani hackers

INDO-PAK CYBER WAR: The ongoing cyber war between India and Pakistan is the latest in the series of such online battles between the two neighbouring countries. GCSRT sources said the dispute between the two countries over Kashmir had spilled into cyber space with each country’s hackers repeatedly targeting the other country’s computing database.

Indian hackers defaced the homepages of more than 100 Pakistani websites on Wednesday, apparently in retaliation for the defacement of more than 2,000 Indian websites by Pakistani hackers on Republic Day.

The retaliation by the ‘Indian Cyber Rakshak’ is expected to continue, say cyber security experts here.

The defaced websites displayed the message “Hacked by Indian Cyber Rakshak” till evening.

Sources in the Global Cyber Security Response Team (GCSRT) said the retaliatory defacement of Pakistani websites began on Tuesday night and continued through Wednesday.

On Republic Day, Pakistani hackers defaced 2,118 Indian websites, including those of the Central Bank of India and the website of model-turned-actress Poonam Pandey.

Ms. Pandey’s website, which was hacked by a group identifying itself as “Team Madleets”, displayed messages like “Pakistan Zindabad.”

Cyber security experts in Bangalore said most of the Indian websites had been defaced by Pakistani hackers going with the handle “StrikerRude”, “KashmirCyberArmy”, “PakCyber Expert”, “HUnter Gujar” and the Operation was named as “#OP26jan”.

An expert said the hacking on Republic Day came two weeks after 1,400 Indian websites were hacked.