Forty websites hacked in four months
Between May and August alone, almost
40 websites belonging to some important government departments with �.in�
domain were defaced. India�s country code domains that were targeted included
�.co.in�, �.net.in�, �.gov.in�, �.org.in�, �.nic.in�, �.ac.in�, �.edu.in� and
�.res.in�. Hackers, mostly from abroad, have also been targeting websites with
�.com�, �.org� and �.net� domains.
During its analysis, CERT-In, which
has been tracking defacement of Indian websites, also found that top
cyberattackers India faced included �HuSsY,� �hasnain haxor,� �CouCouM,�
�BLACKSMITH HACKERS,� �Romantic,� �ALFA TEAM 2012,� �Intruder� and �Team
Patriot.�
Stating that defacing of a website was
an act of cyberterrorism, particularly when the target belonged to critical
government infrastructure, a senior official of the IT Ministry reasoned that
hackers targeted these important websites to reduce public confidence in the
security of a system and its trustworthiness for use for sensitive purposes.
With rising defacements, CERT-In has
circulated a list of security guidelines all critical departments need to
follow.They have been asked to install a potent firewall and anti-spyware and
anti-phishing controls, update their application software regularly and use the
latest Internet browsers, capable of detecting phishing.
