NEW DELHI: Indian cyber agencies have identified seven Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups responsible for launching over 15 lakh cyber attacks, targeting critical infrastructure websites across the country in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror attack, officials said on Tuesday.
They added that a few Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) were found to be targeting mobile phones used by defence personnel and journalists in India through malwares codenamed as ‘Dance Of Hillary’ and ‘Calls From Military’.
The officials said that of 15 lakh cyber attack attempts, only 150 could be successful, as these attacks emerged from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Middle Eastern region.
However, a senior official said, “Our probe has found that cyber attacks on government websites in India decreased after India-Pakistan reached an agreement on no fire from either side, but have not fully stopped. These attacks continue from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco and Middle Eastern countries.”
Giving details of the nature of the attacks, officials said attackers used malware campaigns, which included ‘Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks’ and ‘GPS spoofing’, as cases of defacement of Indian websites were also reported. But many such attacks were thwarted and critical infrastructure of the country was saved, they added.
Malware campaigns
Describing the nature of these attacks, officials said the attackers used malware campaigns such as ‘Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks’ and ‘GPS spoofing.’