Indian Government | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The Indian Government said it has addressed a critical vulnerability in its secure document wallet service Digilocker that could have potentially let a remote attacker bypass mobile one-time passwords (OTP) and sign in as other users. Discovered separately by two independent bug bounty researchers, Mohesh Mohan and Ashish Gahlot , the vulnerability could have been exploited easily to unauthorisedly access sensitive documents uploaded by targeted users' on the Government-operated platform. "The OTP function lacks authorization which makes it possible to perform OTP validation with submitting any valid users details and then manipulation flow to sign in as a totally different user," Mohesh Mohan said in a disclosure shared with The Hacker News. With over 38 million registered users, Digilocker is a cloud-based repository that acts as a digital platform to facilitate online processing of documents and speedier delivery of various government-to-citizen services. ...

A story has been making the rounds on the Internet since yesterday about a cyber attack on an Indian nuclear power plant. Due to some experts commentary on social media even after lack of information about the event and overreactions by many, the incident received factually incorrect coverage widely suggesting a piece of malware has compromised "mission-critical systems" at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant . Relax! That's not what happened. The attack merely infected a system that was not connected to any critical controls in the nuclear facility. Here we have shared a timeline of the events with brief information on everything we know so far about the cyberattack at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu. From where this news came? The story started when Indian security researcher Pukhraj Singh tweeted that he informed Indian authorities a few months ago about an information-stealing malware, dubbed Dtrack, which successfully hit "extre...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Indian embassy websites in seven different countries have been hacked, and attackers have leaked personal data, including full name, residential address, email address, passport number and phone number, of Indian citizens living abroad. This incident is extremely worrying because it involves diplomatic personnel working in the embassies that have always been a favorite target of state-sponsored hackers launching cyber espionage campaigns. Security pen-testers who go by the name Kapustkiy and Kasimierz have claimed responsibility for the hack and told The Hacker News that the reason behind the hack was to force administrators to consider the cyber security of their websites seriously. In Pastebin link shared on their Twitter account , the hackers claimed to have hijacked Indian Embassy websites in Switzerland, Italy, Romania, Mali, South Africa, Libya, and Malawi and leaked personal details of hundreds of Indians, including students studying abroad. The pair exploited a si...

Facebook's Free Internet access to India has hit a hurdle: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI ) has ordered the mobile carrier to temporary suspend the Facebook's Free Basics Internet program. Facebook's Free Basics is an app that allows users to access certain Internet websites, including Facebook, for free. However, India's independent regulatory body has asked Reliance Communications – the only mobile carrier that provides Free Basics in India – to disable the free internet service temporarily while the regulator investigates whether the service violates net neutrality . Facebook's Free Basics – Free Internet for ALL Facebook introduced Free Basics ( then known as Internet.org ) app to India in February this year, offering people access to more than three dozen Web services for free. Users of Facebook's Free Basics app must have a Reliance mobile network and are limited to a range of portals including Wikipedia, BBC New...

Almost every day or every second day, When I come across various announcements in Newspaper, TV News Channels, and Press releases that... ...Indian Government and related Policy-making organizations are going to set up their so-called " CyberSecurity Task Forces " or drafted a " National Cyber Security Policies ," with an aim to boost cyber security in India… The first thing that comes to my mind is: Why Doesn't my Government Understand How Encryption and Online Cyber Security Works? Yes, My Government really have no idea, How Encryption relates to users' Privacy. And… Narendra Modi's Government has done it again! With the release of the draft National Encryption Policy , the government wants access to all your messages whether sent over online email services like Gmail or messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, or Messenger. The National Encryption Policy ( before addendum ) required: Access to your Private Data To stor...

While the Indian people continue to struggle for Net Neutrality, a new problem surrounded them with the release of the latest policy for ' National Encryption Policy ' by the Indian Government. If you delete your WhatsApp Messages or Emails that you receive or send before 90 days, it might be a crime and you can End-up In Jail. If the new National Encryption Policy implements that come up with weird suggestions — one should not delete WhatsApp conversation, Gmail or any email for 90 days, it would be an Internet Disaster. With the aim to 'provide confidentiality of information' and ensure 'protection of sensitive or proprietary information', the draft policy, proposed by an so-called ' expert panel ' from the Department of Electronics and Information Technology ( DeitY ) , requires: Access to your Private Data The government wants to have access to all your encrypted information including your personal emails, text and voice messages, and data stored in a privat...

Think twice before using some words like ' Bomb ', ' Attack ', ' Blast ' or ' kill ' in your Facebook status update, tweets or emails, because this may flag you as a potential terrorist under a surveillance project of Indian Security agencies. This Indian Internet surveillance project named as NETRA ( Network Traffic Analysis) ,   capable of detecting and capture any dubious voice traffic passing through software such as Skype or Google Talk, according to  the Economic Times . In Hindi, NETRA means " eye " and this project is an Indian version of PRISM i.e. A spying project by US National Security Agency (NSA), that also allows the government to monitor the Internet and telephone records of citizens. Reportedly, NETRA is under testing right now by the Indian Intelligence Bureau and Cabinet Secretariat and after on success will be deployed by all Indian National security agencies. Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), a lab under Defe...

The Indian Government is planning to ban the use of US based email services like Gmail for official communications to increase the security of confidential government information. The recent disconcerting reports that that India was being spied upon by American intelligence agencies has opened an all new chapter in the cyber security space. As leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, that NSA involved in widespread spying and surveillance activities across the globe. The Government plans to send a formal notification to about 500,000 employees across the country, asking them to stick to the official email service provided by India's National Informatics Centre, Time of India Reported. The fact that several government officers in top positions use their Gmail IDs for official communications i.e. Several senior government officials in India, including ministers of state for communications & IT Milind Deora and Kruparani Killi, have t...

Soon in December this year, India's new surveillance program - Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) will be able to analyze all telecommunications and Internet communications in India by the government and its agencies.  This means that everything we say or text over the phone, write, post or browse over the Internet will be centrally monitored by Indian authorities. Law enforcement and government agencies intercept, monitor, and analyze communications in order to uncover leads and build the evidence needed to neutralize terrorism and crime. Few days back, BlackBerry has given the necessary permissions for the Indian government to intercept messages sent from BlackBerry devices . According to latest reports - Verint Systems , Israel's cyber intelligence solutions provider , are soon to get a contract from the Indian government to track encrypted communication services such as Gmail, Yahoo . mail, BlackBerry services, Skype and so on. " Ver...

The IT sector has become one of the most significant growth catalysts for the Indian economy. The government approved the National Cyber Security Policy that aims to create a secure computing environment in the country and build capacities to strengthen the current set up with focus on manpower training. The policy was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that lays stress on augmentation of the India's indigenous capabilities in terms of developing the cyber security set-up.  The policy is not aimed only at government entities and big business, but at home users as well. It aims to create a cyber security framework that will address all related issues over a long period.  The framework will lead to specific actions and programmes to enhance the security posture of country's cyber space. Cyber Security Policy will also help in enhancing the intelligence as its integral component and help in anticipating attacks and adopt, counter measures....

According to a report, All major Indian telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Tata Tele services, have agreed to share real-time interception of BlackBerry calls and data services on their networks with Security agencies to meet the December 31 deadline fixed by the Indian government . Research In Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry, has been directed to provide the resolution and web-browsing needs of the BlackBerry Internet Services. This is to be done in discussion with concerned service providers and law interception organisations. Earlier in 2011, the government set the deadline for RIM to come up with facilities for interception, or face closure of their operations in India. The security agencies in the country have been trying to get the company to install local servers so they could access and monitor the stream of messages going back and forth to implement better security in the country. The Ministry for Home Affairs ordere...

One of the ' The Hacker News ' reader inform us today about porn content on some Indian Government websites. After analyzing such websites, we came across more than 30 sub domains belongs to ' entegramam.gov.in ' . Where ' entegramam' means "My village" and all sub domains of this website are names of the different cities of Kerala state. The websites are in Malayalam language and most of the sites are powered by Joomla and Drupal (older vulnerable versions) with discussion forums on them. On our further analyze we found that time stamp of the Porn articles posted on forum dated back to " 2012/08/30 16:00 ".  That means, Government websites hosting Child Porn content from last four months and authorities or  the moderators of the website are not aware about the issue. On a simple Google search, one can found all such pages : site:gov.in "nude"  for further reports and analyzing. Google also giving notification...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirmed on Saturday that its website was hacked. The CBI has registered a case under the Information Technology Act. "It has come to the notice of the CBI that its official website was unauthorizedly accessed and defaced during the night of December 3 and 4. A case has been registered in this connection in the cyber crime cell of the CBI," an official spokesperson told the media on Saturday. Efforts are ongoing to restore the website. "Efforts are underway to restore the website with the help of the National Informatics Centre and CBI cybersecurity experts," said the spokesperson. Reports emerged on Friday that the website of India's federal investigating agency had been hacked. The CBI website remained inaccessible today after it was hacked, allegedly by a Pakistani group. A group calling itself the Pakistan Cyber Army left a message on the CBI's home page last night, claiming to have avenged the hacking of 40 Pakistani ...