Hacktivist Indonesia claims to have attacked 12k Indian websites
According to a warning sent out by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) sections of the Ministry of Home Affairs, a group calling itself “Hactivist Indonesia” has allegedly published a list of 12,000 Indian government websites, including Central and States, that it may target in the coming days.
The alert has been sent to all agencies, Central and State government wings, but Indian government websites are “updated” and “capable” to manage such threats and narratives being pushed by evil elements who may be acting within or outside the country.
According to MHA’s cyber analysts, “this narrative has been ongoing since last year.”
The notification instructed government employees to exercise caution because ” According to reports, state and federal government websites could be attacked”. The All India Institute of Medical Science’s (AIIMS) systems were subjected to a significant ransomware attack last year, which rendered its centralized records and other medical services unavailable.
The I4C distributed the alert on Thursday based on the information its Cyber Threat Intelligence branch had learned from open-source intelligence. The ‘Hacktivist Indonesia’ gang has been involved in an illegal effort to attack websites in both India and a few other foreign nations, according to the story, which was discovered by the Cyber Threat Intelligence division of I4C.
The number of ransomware assaults on different government entities reported by the Indian government in 2022 than tripled to 19.
A list of targeted government websites, including state and federal websites, has also been released by the hacktivist group, according to the notice.
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A Malaysian hacktivist gang broke into the websites of the Indian government last year in response to political tensions brought on by remarks made regarding the Prophet Muhammad. The Malaysian hacktivist collective DragonForce targeted the Indian Embassy in Israel as well as the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management.
The Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW), developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in 2009, aim to ensure the quality and accessibility of government guidelines by providing guidance on desirable practice’s covering the entire lifecycle of websites, web portals, and web applications, from conceptualization and design to their development, maintenance, and management. This makes government websites more secure from cyber-attacks.
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It encouraged programmers to safeguard connection strings, tokens, and keys, encrypt passwords, and maintain software and plugins up to date. Furthermore, it said that cookies on websites should be safe. Additionally, it cautioned developers against giving too many high-level employees access to the website’s backend.
Author: Vaishnavi Bhujbal
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