Cyber war against India: Gujarat cops identify 2 hacker groups from Malaysia, Indonesia

Such a call for starting a cyber war was circulated widely on social media among such hacker groups. the release said.Acting swiftly, a team of experts working with the Cyber Crime Branch, including an intern engineering student, successfully identified the hackers associated with both the groups.Details like IP addresses of these hackers are being shared with Interpol for further legal action against them.

The Cyber Crime Branch of the Ahmedabad police in Gujarat on Friday said it had identified hackers from Malaysia and Indonesia who had initiated a cyber war against India and had appealed to Muslim hackers worldwide to ''unite and start a campaign'' against the country after the Nupur Sharma episode.

In a release, the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch said two hacker groups, identified as Dragon Force of Malaysia and Hacktivists of Garuda of Indonesia, have claimed they had hacked over 2000 Indian websites, including those of government departments and educational institutes, as well as leaked confidential data.

''After the controversy of Nupur Sharma (who made objectionable comments against Prophet Mohammad), these two hacker groups had urged Muslim hackers all around the world to start a cyber war against the India and Indian people. Such a call for starting a cyber war was circulated widely on social media among such hacker groups.'' the release said.

Acting swiftly, a team of experts working with the Cyber Crime Branch, including an intern engineering student, successfully identified the hackers associated with both the groups.

''Details like IP addresses of these hackers are being shared with Interpol for further legal action against them. Our team has also discovered several vulnerabilities in over 80 Indian government websites and have reported them to National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) under the PMO,'' it added.

The Cyber Crime Branch said the hackers had leaked confidential data such as government files, Aadhaar cards of a few, PAN card and passport details of some citizens and ID cards and personal details of some policemen of Andhra Pradesh.

An Assam-based news channel was also hacked on June 9 and a flag of Pakistan was displayed on live TV, while the Thane police website was hacked too as part of this cyber war, the Cyber Crime Branch said.

Giving a message of peace against the cyber war declared by their hacker groups, the technical team of Cyber Crime Branch found vulnerabilities in over 100 Indonesian government websites and 70-odd Malaysian websites, including several critical ministries of their government, educational institute and industry, among others, it said.

''These vulnerabilities, or 'bugs', could have been exploited by any hacker and may have been used for destroying these websites or for stealing data. Both the governments (of Malaysia and Indonesia) were alerted about these bugs so that they can fix them,'' the release informed.

On learning about these vulnerabilities, the National Cyber Coordination and Command Centre (N4C) of Malaysia has shown gratitude for the timely alert, said the release.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)