Cyber War ensues between India and Pakistan post Pulwama attack

On 14th of Feb 2019, in a deadliest terror attack on security forces in Kashmir, around 40 CRPF personnel were killed, when their convoy was targeted in Pulwama district on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. The Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad took responsibility for the attack.

Indian Govt strongly condemned the attack and asserted that the sacrifices of the brave security personnel will not go in vain. At the same time the intelectual mass of India also declared the high-end sophisticated war against Pakistan, the 'Cyber War'.

Cyber war involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization or Individuals to attack and attempt to damage another nation's computers or information networks; for example computer viruses or denial-of-service attacks. Cyber war is a virtual conflict initiated as a politically motivated attack on an enemy's computer and information systems. Waged via the Internet, these attacks disable financial and organizational systems by stealing or altering classified data to undermine networks, websites and services. 

Recently the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority officials revealed that Indian hackers posted Indian Flags and Indian Anthem after hacking hundreds of important websites including the sites of Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Water and Power, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Food and Security. This is just like another Cold War in the form of cyber-war that is going on social media between the hackers of both the countries.

No doubt Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has shut down the websites and now trying to restore it. But if IT experts are working then how Indian hackers are able to continuously hack Pakistani accounts?  Why are the hacking of our public sector websites higher and what steps are the experts taking to mitigate it?

Instead of taking strict action, Pakistani hackers are also hacking Indian sites. But the counter is too low when compared to Indian Hackers. Indian hackers are highly professional and more competitive, including most of the genius from Engineering backgrounds, as well as most of them having master degree from renowned Institutes and representing Global software products. It is just like they are players of a game and both are playing their part.

However, security of these systems is very much needed because people heavily rely on these automated systems.

Clerks of government offices and so-called IT experts feed data and manage their sites. But they are unaware of the knowledge to secure their data. People who are dealing with technologies and software must know how to secure their accounts and software.

Cyber crime is speedily spreading into Pakistan. Many law enforcement agencies and cyber scouts are there to prevent systems, sites and software from hacking and to take action against cyber crimes but this is not enough because hijacking of accounts is growing and there is the need of very high command over this. As terrorism in Pakistan is spreading fiercely, many innocents are being trapped in the name of religion through social media by terrorist groups and they are playing a leading role in spreading terrorism and destroying families.

After the hacking, the attackers left a message, 'We will never forget #14/02/2019'. The cyber attack was dedicated to the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives in the Pulwama attack.

The list of Pakistani websites hacked include -

https://sindhforests.gov.pk/op.html

https://mail.sindhforests.gov.pk/op.html

https://pkha.gov.pk/op.html

https://ebidding.pkha.gov.pk/op.html

https://mail.pkha.gov.pk/op.html

http://kda.gkp.pk/op.html

http://blog.kda.gkp.pk/op.html

http://mail.kda.gkp.pk/op.html

https://kpsports.gov.pk/op.html

https://mail.kpsports.gov.pk/op.html

http://seismic.pmd.gov.pk/op.html

http://namc.pmd.gov.pk/op.html

http://rmcpunjab.pmd.gov.pk/FlightsChartFolder/op.html

http://ffd.pmd.gov.pk/modis/op.html

http://radar.pmd.gov.pk/islamabad/op.html

https://badin.opf.edu.pk/14-02-2019.php

However, a number of websites with gov.pk domain IDs mentioned in the list do appear to be hacked. A report in Pakistani newspaper Dawn claimed that the websites of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and Army were also hacked.

A list of the hacked websites are being circulated on WhatsApp and other social media platforms claiming that "Pakistan has faced its worst cyber attack in history, in last 72 hours."

People must know how to secure their site’s password, how to apply double authentication, how to manage IP address, and they must keep their sites up to date. Above all there must be security officers in the field of IT.