Hackers make attempt on government websites
HYDERABAD: Following the hacking of over 21 government websites recently, analysis by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has identified the root cause as the vulnerability in the website www. christianminorities.ap.gov.in. Hackers made repeated attempts on Monday as well to tamper with websites but were unsuccessful since the internal security audit was done before making some of the sites operational on Sunday night. It was also found that the hacking attempts were made from Jakarta, Algeria and Turkey.
The security of government websites was brought under the limelight after hackers recently gained entry into the websites hosted by the Andhra Pradesh State Data Centre (APSDC) server. The hackers had not done a lot of damage but had created an additional page on the sites with a URL suggesting the information in it was regarding the state budget and that its confidentiality had been breached.
The state government ordered a security audit and entrusted the work to Cyber Security Works. The certified applications will later be tested by Wipro ethical hacking team before being hosted on the server. Meanwhile, a few websites were restored Sunday night itself.
The site http://christianminoraties.ap.gov.in will be analysed further before it is reopened.
Meanwhile, the minister for information technology and communications Ponnala Lakshmaiah called a high-level meeting on February 22 with officials from his department, other investigating and maintenance agencies as well as officials from the departments whose websites were hacked for further discussions on the subject.