As the world was engrossed in the celebration of New Year, hackers from India and Pakistan welcomed the year by indulging in the cyber war. Indian hackers allegedly infected three Pakistan airport websites with ransomware to avenge hacking of the official website of National Security Guard (NSG) by their counterpart in Pakistan.
The group known as 'Alone Injector' had posted some offensive content on NSG's official homepage. Later, remedial action was processed by National Informatics Centre.
A Pakistani hacking group,’ Kashmir Cheetah’ had also attacked the official website of Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram airports on December 28 which were later restored by cybersecurity officials.
A message posted on the websites read: “Website stamped by Kashmiri Cheetah. HACKED. Team: Pak Cyber Attackers. We are Unbeatable. Mess With The Best. Die Like The Rest.” The group was also responsible for the hacking of AIIMS Raipur’s website earlier this year.
In retaliation to both the attacks, Indian hackers on Monday (January 02) had claimed to have hacked Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan International and Karachi airport websites and injected them with ransomware malware which denied the owners to access them.
“We have hacked Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan International and Karachi airport website,” Indian hackers were quoted as saying by mail online India on Monday.
The hackers demanded bitcoins (virtual money) in exchange for unlocking it but an Indian hacker was quoted as saying that though last time they donated the money from unlocking the files to needy kids, but this time they won’t share the key.
Indian hackers have warned both Pakistani hackers and the government against attacking India in future.
“We have many other important Pakistan websites under our control, but they will be compromised only if Pakistan tries to open an attack against India,” said one of the Indian hackers.
Experts believe the hacking of airport websites can be used to get out crucial information about flights, which can have serious consequences.
This hacking group in past had infected the Pakistan government systems using a malicious programme, taken control over hundreds of computers and locked its complete data, making it inaccessible. The hacking group also leaked details of Pakistan army officers and banking details.
India’s weak cyber security infrastructure has been repeatedly questioned by the experts and the country ranks in top 10 in cyber crimes.
In 2013, the website of the Customs Department of the Indira Gandhi International Airport was hacked allegedly by a Pakistani hacker. He broke into the server, removed the content on the homepage and uploaded an image along with an audio file of a song.
Such fights are common but now the intensity of such attacks have increased by many folds.