Hackers try breaking into AP government websites

The past year saw a weird trend of individuals expressing their criticism for government laws resorting to hacking. The hacking scenario was on a rise, not just on popular sites or e-shops, but also on government websites. Last year, Anonymous hacked government websites showing their anti-corruption stance, while this year, several Irish government websites pertaining to finance and justice departments were hacked to oppose the new web law. Now IBNLive reports that hackers attempted to break into different websites of the Andhra Pradesh government, even though a security audit was being conducted at the State Data Centre, which is maintained by Wipro. Although the hackers weren’t successful, the nefarious hackers were reported to hail from Jakarta (Indonesia), Algeria and Turkey.

Another hack (Image Credit: Getty Images)

"Hackers from Jakarta (Indonesia), Algeria and Turkey made repeated attempts to break into the Government websites at different times in the forenoon today but they were not successful," Information Technology and Communications, Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said. The week before, hackers broke into 27 websites of the Andhra Pradesh government departments, such as their budget portal. They added new pages to the website, while leaving the home pages untouched.

"Accordingly, Cyber Security Works was engaged for application security audit and the applications certified after audit will be tested by Wipro ethical hacking team before hosting. Applications having vulnerabilities are required for rectification by the developers of the respective departments," the Minister said.

Although it is yet unclear, these hackers are suspected to be from Bangladesh or Myanmar. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) was alerted by the State government to get the access logs and screenshots for further analysis, and the Cyber Crimes Cell of AP Crime Investigation Department started its investigation. The CERT- In disclosed that the vulnerability in the christianminorities.ap.gov.in website was the key factor, leading to security breach. 
 
About 10 sites are said to be restored, while the audit on 12 others is still on. The portal christianminorities.ap.gov.in, which was claimed to be the main reason behind the attacks will be examined further, according to reports. Last year, also saw a high profile hack, when the Congress website was hacked and Sonia Gandhi’s profile was defaced.