70 Indian websites under cyber-attack

Comments against Prophet Muhammad (SM), by now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, have invited a barrage of cyber-attacks on Indian websites, both government and private.

The hacktivist group DragonForce Malaysia have attacked at least 70 websites including the Indian embassy in Israel, National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management, e-portal of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), websites of educational institutions such as Delhi Public School, Bhavans and other groups of colleges across the country. 

In Maharashtra alone, more than 50 websites were found defaced, reports The Times of India.

The group also sent out a common message through audio clips and texts — "For you is your religion and for me is my religion".

It also called on all Muslim hackers, all hackers around the world, human rights organisations, and activists to start a campaign against India.

Though the website of the Indian embassy in Israel was restored by Sunday, one of the pages of ICAR was still defaced.

The cyber attacks took place between 8-12 June, confirmed an internet archive analysis on Wayback Machine by The Times of India.

Security experts also warned that the hacktivist group also made attempts to breach a prominent bank in India that has over 13,000 members.

"These are politically motivated hackers and national state actors. Defacement attacks are advanced persistent threats to future attacks like data theft and ransomware attacks on banking and critical infrastructure. When they attacked Israeli sites they leaked personal data, passport data and VPN credentials of Israeli companies. We should brace up for more cyber attacks," a top cyber security expert told The Times of India.