India-Pakistan cyber war has Kerala on vigil

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A couple of Kerala government websites too suffered cyber attacks amidst reports of a cyber war between Indian and Pakistan hackers on the backdrop of the tension on the border. This has prompted the state government's IT wing to step up vigil.  The website of the state Food Safety Commissionerate and a Wayanad-based dairy society under a local body were hacked in the last one month, amidst reports that pro-Pakistan hackers are targeting government sites in India. Though it is yet to be ascertained whether the attacks were part of the cyber war, the state IT wing is maintaining  caution against any cyber attacks on the state data centres, where majority of government sites are hosted.      

However, many government agencies have still hosted their websites in private servers, despite repeated security alert from state IT department. The website of Food Safety Commissionerate, 'www.foodsafety.kerala.gov.in' was hacked about three weeks back. Another website of a dairy society under a local body in Wayanad was also hacked during the same period. During preliminary inquiry one of the sites was found to be hacked by a pro-Pakistan group and the other  by a group from Syria, government sources said.

“Ever since we came across reports of cyber attacks by Pakistani hackers, we are maintaining a vigil against possible cyber attack attempts on two state data centres," an official of the Kerala State IT Mission told DC. The state had been conducting frequent security audits of the sites hosted on the state data centres since there had been a series of defacement of key government sites. Even the state government's official portal ‘www.kerala.gov.in’ was hacked last year. A massive attack on 30 government websites was  also reported last year. The investigators could not trace the exact sources of any of these attacks, especially since the attacks were made though proxy servers.