On Sunday, the world woke up to the news of Pakistani hackers hacking official website of Kerala government (www.kerela.gov.in). The website displayed pictures of burning Indian flag and messages like “Pakistan Zindabad”, “Security is just an illusion” and “We are Team Pak Cyber Attacker”. However, revenge was taken in reply to those hackers within few hours. A cyber group called ‘Mallu Cyber Soldiers’ hacked around 46 Pakistani websites including Pakistan.gov.pk (Pakistan’s government website), cabinet.gov.pk and president.gov.pk.
It seems that no border wars and firing were enough, as the war has now shifted to internet as well. No matter how many efforts are made in developing Indo-Pak relationship, there is always something to spoil it.
In the Facebook page of this anonymous group, ‘Mallu Cyber Soldiers’ has stated that they have defaced four more websites. The page sts.edu.pk, which is defaced, has the image of burning Pakistani flag with the message ‘Better stay away from Indian Cyber Space’. This attack has been named as ‘Operation Pak Cyber Space’. The hackers responsible for this have claimed that this is a payback for hacking www.kerala.gov.in. Both Pakistani and Kerala governments have not restored the websites yet.
Before this reply to the Pakistani hackers, Mallu Cyber Soldiers had already been engaged to an online war against some unknown Pakistani hackers. In October, last year, ‘Mallu Cyber Soldiers’ gathered headlines when they hacked several Pakistani websites in vengeance to hacking of actor Mohan lal’s website.
India Cyber Pirates and Indian Black Hats along with Mallu Cyber Soldiers hacked approximately 120 websites of Pakistan on august 15, in vengeance to the hacking of Thenmala Eco Tourism’s official website on Independence Day.
“We don’t usually track cases of Indian groups hacking Pakistan websites. We had prevented an attempt from Pakistan to hack around 45 government website around 5 months ago,” Said N Vijaya kumar, State Cyber Cell DYSP
Other than this, on 29 April, Pakistani hackers defaced around 30 Indian government websites. Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, however, restored the websites before even the concerned officials came to know about the hacking. The then-hacked websites included State Council for Science, Area Development Agency, Kochi Metro, State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society Limited and Technology & Environment.
The hacked websites displayed the images of a dark faced man wearing a hoodie, with a message, “Just Support My Bro, Hacked By S@NT3T3, Pakistan Zindabad”. There was an email id displayed as well- IVORIAN.HAXOR@hotmail.com. K Mohammed Safirulla, State IT Mission director and director of Computer Emergency Response Team-Kerala (CERT-K) had launched the probe in April.
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