Sunday, 4 November 2012
A number of government websites including those of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Prime Minister's Office and West Bengal's police department, Directorate of Estates (Ministry of Urban Development), Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, and Rehabilitation Council of India have suffered massive cyber attacks.
The biggest attack was on the DRDO's
Recruitment and Assessment Centre website that deals with the
recruitment of scientists to the several laboratories of the DRDO. The
website remained down for more than 9 hours. The hackers from Algeria, known as
SanFour25, have so far conducted 40 attacks. The hacker group had
earlier targeted Israeli institutions. The message posted on the
websites, after they were attacked, read: "By SanFour25, Alegerian
Hackers."
The security agencies are highly
concerned over the fact that the hackers group belong to Algeria. The
Intelligence Bureau officials fear SanFour25 could be associated with a
terrorist outfit in Algeria. The country is said to have 20 terrorist
groups that have been classified as dangerous and have direct link to
Al-Qaeda. The latest spate of attacks has exposed
India's vulnerability to cyber attacks, despite the government efforts
to ramp up the infrastructure to prevent such incidents. It's not the
first time Indian websites have come under cyber attack.
