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diffused among agencies defending

INSIDE THE INDO-PAK CYB ER WARS


The India’s IT infrastructure. A report by
problem is the Indian Computer Emergency
that most Response Team mandated security
Government audits for all government websites.
The IT ministry that maintains gov-
The proxy war fought by the websites
ernment websites expressed its dis-
have poor
intelligence agencies using approval of the NTRO operation. “The
security NTRO should be building up our cyber
hackers has now moved features espionage capabilities and not expos-
into a different dimension and are ing themselves through such frivolous
hence vulnerable to such attacks,” says a senior government of-
By Sandeep Unnithan
ficial who did not want to be named.
cyber attacks. SANJAY PANDEY, The CBI was prepared to put out an
CEO, iSec services
ival intelligence agencies of Interpol Red Corner notice against the

R India and Pakistan recently


waged a proxy cyber war
using hired hackers. The
battle, already being called the first
Indo-Pak cyber war on the Internet,
The
possible
involvement
of govern-
unknown Pakistani hackers who had
defaced its site. It desisted only when
advised by the intelligence agencies
that the Pakistanis could put out a
similar notice for Indian hackers.
pitted an ‘Indian Cyber Army’ (ICA) ments can’t Word of this appeared to have quickly
against the ‘Pakistan Cyber Army’ be ruled out filtered down to the hackers. “We
(PCA). The war erupted on November as neither made internet blog entries requesting
26, 2010, the second anniversary of both sides to call for a truce, to
the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, when the
countries prevent a government crackdown,”
ICA attacked 870 Pakistani websites. have tried to says Dhruv Soi, director with a Delhi-
These ‘attacks’ were primarily find out who their respective based cyber security forum.”
web defacements and gaining control SAURABH SINGH/
‘cyber armies’ are.” The attacks from Pakistan may
over websites. Hackers penetrated www.indiatodayimages.com RAKESH GOYAL, have embarrassed the Government
THE DEFACED HOME PAGES
MD, Sysman Computers Pvt Ltd
the root directory of websites by OF CBI (LEFT) AND OGRA but it is gearing up for a larger threat
exploiting loopholes and defacing it from the Chinese cyber army. While
by replacing the home page. Among multaneously attacked. The worst hit Centre after the 1998 nuclear tests. attacks. Indian intelligence agencies believed to be deployed by Israel and Pakistani hackers may have scored
the targets were 34 Pakistani govern- was that of the CBI. “We are sleeping The ICA and PCA warriors hide behind believe some of these hackers were the US, leading Iranian authorities to political points with website deface-
ment websites, including the sites of but not dead. Remember PCA? Back off nom de guerres such as ‘Zombie’ and co-opted by Pakistani intelligence claim that “an electronic war had ments, Chinese hackers are adept at
the navy, maritime security agency, kids or we will smoke your doors off ‘Disfigure’, and are thought to be agencies. Internet security analysts been launched against Iran”. cyber espionage. In 2009, Chinese
foreign ministry, economic affairs like we did before,” said a message young IT professionals. With the first say attacking over 1,000 websites on Even as the CBI functioned without cyber spies hacked 450 government
ministry and the chief minister of from Pakistani hackers on the Indo-Pak cyber war, the rivalry has be- both sides of the border could not a website for nearly a month, Indian computers, including those of the
Sindh. Visitors to these portals only premier investigation agency’s portal. gun taking the contours of organised have been attacked without months of hackers rallied around. They attacked National Security Adviser (NSA),
saw a terse missive: “Hacked by the It took the CBI nearly a month to cyber warfare, with the the ISI and NTRO coordination, preparation and a the Oil and Natural Gas Regulatory deputy NSA, and the three armed
Indian Cyber Army.” “Our objective of restore its website because the entire stepping in to mobilise the hackers. painstaking study of website vulnera- Authority (OGRA), Pakistan’s equivalent forces, stealing sensitive information.
launching cyber attacks was to pay software had to be tested and revali- This is because the anonymity of bilities. “Government involvement in of India’s ONGC. When Pakistani A recent meeting chaired by Prime
our homage to the martyrs of 26/11,” dated. The Department of Infor- cyberspace lends itself naturally to cyber-skirmish can’t be ruled out, as authorities put up a mirror website, it Minister Manmohan Singh involved
an unnamed ICA representative later mation Technology discovered that ‘plausibly deniable’ cloak- and-dagger neither countries have tried to find was attacked and defaced again in five stakeholders from the armed forces,
told website Hacker Regiment. Peshawar-based hackers had entered intelligence operations. out who their respective ‘cyber minutes. “The OGRA hack was simply a intelligence agencies and DRDO in pro-
Government sources, however, the website through an Indian Air Hacking and web defacements are armies’ are,” says Rakesh Goyal, MD, response to CBI’s website hacked by the tecting cyber security. The Govern-
say the attacks were planned and Force website. Both sites shared a criminal activities punishable under Sysman Computers Pvt Ltd. PCA and we wouldn’t have stretched ment is earmarking Rs 15,000 crore to
coordinated by India’s technical intel- common database, a security lapse cyber laws of both the countries. Last Across the world, ‘cyber armies’ these attacks against Pakistani web- set up a National Cyber Command to
ligence agency, the National Technical which proved to be their undoing. year, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation form adjuncts of security forces and sites,” said an ICA representative. protect Indian cyberspace. The first
Research Organisation (NTRO). “The problem is that most govern- Agency busted a cyber crime gang are used to wage war by other means. The war quickly spilled out of cy- Indo-Pak cyber war ended in a truce
A covert NTRO division, the ‘informa- ment websites have poor security fea- ‘Pakbugs’ that specialised in ‘phish- Attacks look like Distributed Denial of berspace and brought in the govern- but the warriors on both sides sit with
tion warfare group’, uses hackers for tures and hence, vulnerable to such ing’, or scooping personal credit card Service (DDoS) attacks, such as those ment. A multi-agency meeting called their fingers poised on keyboards. “We
offensive cyber operations. Pakistan’s attacks,” says Sanjay Pandey, CEO of details from Internet users, and web used by Russian hackers to paralyse for by Minister of State for Communi- still own many servers of Pakistan and
intelligency agency ISI, too, is believed iSec services. Hackers on both sides defacements. Ahmad Hafeez from Estonian and Georgian national cyber cations and Information Technology are prepared to respond to any attack
to have recently recruited hackers for have indulged in sporadic attacks Lahore was charged with 480 deface- infrastructure through sustained Sachin Pilot rapidly got into a finger- from the PCA or any other Pakistani
offensive attacks. On December 3, the against each other ever since Pakis- ments and Pakbugs co-founder attacks. Late last year, the ‘Stuxnet’ pointing exercise between various hacker group,” says ‘Disfigure’ from
39th anniversary of the 1971 Indo- tani hackers famously disfigured the Hassan Khan, from Peshawar, was virus attacked computers at an agencies such as the CBI, NTRO and NIC. the ICA. Clearly, the last digital salvo
Pak war, 270 Indian websites were si- website of Bhabha Atomic Research accused of involvement in 8,697 such Iranian nuclear plant. The worm was It only illustrated how responsibility is has not been fired yet. ■

58 INDIA TODAY ◆ MARCH 21, 2011 MARCH 21, 2011 ◆ INDIA TODAY 59

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