India Sees Dramatic Rise in Cyber-Attacks Post-Kashmir Decision

There has been a rise in cyber-attacks on Indian institutions after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and the country needs to be extra careful when it comes to the security of websites and critical infrastructure, Russian cyber-security firm Kaspersky said on Monday.

On Sunday, the official website of the Bihar Education Department was hacked and "RootAyyildiz Turkish Hacker" claimed responsibility for posting messages praising Pakistan and Islam like "We Love Pakistan" on the website.

The hacked portal was later restored.

"We have definitely seen an increase in the cyber-attacks on India after the abrogation of Article 370 by the Indian government. According to our Cyberthreat World-time Map, India is currently the 7th most attacked country in the world," Saurabh Sharma, Senior Security Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) APAC, Kaspersky, told IANS.

However, he added, it is difficult in the current situation to understand if these are state-sponsored attacks.

"We cannot confirm if it originated from Pakistan or it's a group of cyber-attackers targeting India while taking advantage of the current situation and leaving messages that may suggest otherwise," said Sharma.

Last month, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) informed the Parliament that over 24 websites of central ministries, departments and state governments were hacked till May.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that attempts have been made from to launch cyber-attacks on Indian cyberspace, and these attacks were seen to be originating from a number of countries, including China and Pakistan.

"India needs to be more careful when it comes to the security of their websites and critical infrastructure, especially when there are cyber-attackers that are ready to exploit our vulnerabilities in the name of cyberwar between countries," the Kaspersky executive cautioned.