Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 5: Amidst the escalating tension between the two countries following the Pahalgam terror attack, a Pakistani hacker group calling itself the ‘Pakistan Cyber Force’ claims to have accessed sensitive information after breaching some of the Indian defence institutions.
The group claimed that it had hacked the Indian Military Engineering Services, the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Armoured Vehicle Nigam Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, and other websites.
While the extent of the breach has yet to be officially confirmed by Indian authorities, officials familiar with the matter said they have come across the claims.
The officials said the claims suggested that the cyber attacks may have compromised sensitive information about defence personnel, including their login credentials. The sources said the website of Armoured Vehicle Nigam Limited has been taken offline for a thorough audit to assess the extent of any potential damage caused by the hacking attempt.
The now-banned X handle of the Pakistan-based cyber group also shared screenshots of the Armoured Vehicle Nigam Limited webpage, which had been defaced with a Pakistani flag and a tank. Another post displayed a list of names, allegedly of Indian defence personnel, along with the message: “Hacked. Your security is an illusion. MES data owned.”
The handle also claimed to have accessed over 10 GB of data belonging to 1,600 users from the website of the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. Senior management of Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, however, categorically denied that its website was hacked, sources said.
Cyber security experts, the sources said, were actively monitoring cyberspace to detect any additional attacks, particularly those that may be sponsored by threat actors linked to Pakistan. Also, appropriate measures were being taken to strengthen the security infrastructure to guard against further intrusion attempts.
Last week, a similar incident unfolded when Pakistan-sponsored hackers launched several unsuccessful attempts to breach Indian websites. The hacker groups, including ‘Cyber Group HOAX1337’ and ‘National Cyber Crew’, targeted the websites of Army Public Schools in Jammu, attempting to deface them with messages mocking the victims of the recent Pahalgam terror attack. The Indian cyber security agencies swiftly detected and neutralised the hacking attempts.
Ties between India and Pakistan have touched rock bottom in the wake of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, where 25 tourists and a Kashmiri were shot dead in cold blood. The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the heinous attack.
India has vowed an exemplary response as the investigation into the terror strike points to a Pakistani hand, like several other attacks on Indian soil in the past. India has launched a series of diplomatic moves against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and visa services to Pakistani nationals. Marathon meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and top officials in the defence establishment suggest that a bigger action is imminent.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has gone back to its playbook of denying any role in the attacks and asking for evidence. Following terror strikes in the past, including the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, Indian authorities shared information and evidence with Pakistan, but the latter has never done enough to bring the perpetrators to justice. After India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan said any move to stop water flowing into the country would be seen as an act of power and threatened to suspend all bilateral pacts, including the Simla Agreement that validates the Line of Control.
It is against this backdrop that Pakistani hackers are targeting Indian defence websites. Earlier, websites of Army Public School (APS) Srinagar, APS Ranikhet, the Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) database, and the Indian Air Force Placement Organisation portal had been attacked.
