In a major embarrassment, the website of India's premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was hacked tonight by a group identifying themselves as the "Pakistani Cyber Army." The CBI homepage displayed a message from the Pakistani Cyber Army, warning the Indian Cyber Army not to attack their websites.
The hackers have exposed a significant vulnerability in India's cybersecurity by infiltrating one of the most secure websites. The CBI is linked to the command center of the world police organization, Interpol, 24/7.
The hackers' message also criticized the National Informatics Centre (NIC), responsible for managing computer servers across India, and their filtering controls.
Intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned the government that proper cybersecurity measures are lacking in government offices, and that no security audits are being conducted.
The Pakistani Cyber Army further threatened to conduct "mass defacement" of other websites.
People logging into the CBI homepage were redirected to a page with the following message:
“This attempt is in response to the Pakistani websites hacked by the ‘Indian Cyber Army’. We told you before... we are sleeping but not dead. Remember PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army)! Back off, kids, or we will smoke your doors off like we did before. Let's see what your investigating agency, the so-called CBI, can do for you or for us! Haha... one more attempt from your side, and we have your every website lying around here like it’s our local server! So we would like to say to your elite hackers and your NIC team: go and read some more books. You guys are seriously a bunch of script kiddies! You know nothing right now. Got root access to NTC server? Mass defacements...how about something like this: a planned attack! BTW, we got root to your NIC too. Your filtering sucks. Have fun, and DO NOT DISTURB. We have better things to do. Stop complaining about Pakistani websites' security. Secure your own first. That’s what intelligent people do! LOL… Tata.”
The Pakistani Cyber Army added an HTML file named HEX786.html in the root directory of the hacked websites, instead of defacing them, similar to the actions of the Indian Cyber Army on Pakistani websites.
HEX786, a member of the Pakistani Cyber Army, warned Indian hackers not to initiate cyber warfare. He wrote:
“Indians No0bs Hackers, we are warning you. Stop this cyber war you have started against Pakistan. Don’t think that you’re far away from us. We will make your internet hell. See how we will defeat you in cyber war. You’ll never ever forget.”
Senior hackers on both sides of the border are advising their communities to refrain from engaging in such activities.
