July 9, 2013 (TSR) – A hacker with ID handle “H4x0r HuSsY” from a Pakistan-based cyber group has managed to take control of few Government websites which belong to India’s richest state Goa and has defaced them.
Goa is India’s smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population, but it is India’s richest state with a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole. It was ranked the best placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.
The affected websites includes NRI Commission of Goa (nri.goa.gov.in), Directorate of Agriculture(www.agri.goa.gov.in), Directorate of Art and Culture (artandculture.goa.gov.in/uploads/index.html), Department of Information and Publicity (artandculture.goa.gov.in/uploads/index.html), Directorate of Fire & Emergency Service (goadfes.gov.in/media/index.php), Goa Dental College (gdch.goa.gov.in), Government Printing Press & Stationery (goaprintingpress.gov.in).
Other affected websites: dfda.goa.gov.in,dsya.goa.gov.in, Department of Labour & Employment (labour.goa.gov.in), Captain of Ports Department (ports.goa.gov.in), River Navigation Department Goa (rnd.goa.gov.in/uploads/index.php), Department of Sainik Welfare Govt. of Goa (www.dosw.goa.gov.in), socialwelfare.goa.gov.in/media/index.php, Department of Tourism (goatourism.gov.in/images/index.php)
This is not the first time Indian websites being hacked by this same hacker. In the past, he hacked into a number of Indian Government websites and left them defaced.
In April, Pakistani cyber fighters retaliated massively and hacked over a thousand Indian websites in response to an Indian attack on the website of the Pakistan’s Election Commission.
The website of ECP was shut down after an attack by an Indian hacker, who identified himself as NIGh7 F0x. The hacker defaced the homepage of ECP website and later compromised its availability.
The attack on ECP website came at a time when the Pakistani commission shifted its website on another server to avert the crisis but still some ECP website users are complaining about difficulty in accessing some of the contents.
The hack came when the Commission had already started uploading the nomination papers of candidates contesting in May 11 polls. Pakistani election body was busy preparing for the general elections on 11th May 2013 at the time.
The spokesman of ECP assured the Pakistanis that all important election related data is secure and the website has started functioning normally for last few days.
Pakistani hackers who called themselves “True Cyber Army” defaced 1,059 websites of Indian election bodies which was shown on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s web page. The hacked websites included http://www.nmcelection.org/, http://www.mcgmelection.org/.
The hackers warned to launch more attacks on Indian websites if their rivals continued their campaign against Pakistani websites.
“If Indian Hackers did not stop attacking Pakistani websites, we have right to fight for the integrity of our homeland,” True Cyber Army said in an email message to The News.
