KOCHI: Ernakulam Rural Police have started a probe into a cyber attack on the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) website by a hacker group named Anonymous Sudan. The case was registered based on the complaint by CIAL PRO on Monday night.
On Saturday evening, the CIAL website was subjected to a distributed denial-of-service (DD0S) attack, resulting in heavy traffic and making the website inoperable. The attack lasted until 10 pm, and the websites of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Goa airports were also targeted by the group.
Cyber experts describe Anonymous Sudan as a politically motivated hacktivist group that targets India and criticizes the persecution of minorities.
Before hacking the airports’ websites, the group issued a warning via Telegram that India would be targeted until April 14.
The case has been registered under Sections 43, 66, and 66F of the IT Act, which deals with computer damage, computer-related offences, and cyber-terrorism.
“Our team visited CIAL and checked the computer system. It was found that no major damage has happened. The hacker group only could pump up traffic affecting the operation of the website for a few hours,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Anonymous Sudan targeted India’s health sector with a message on Telegram, claiming that hospitals and the health sector had been down because of what they were doing to Muslims, and sharing links to 10 hospital websites, including one based in Kerala.