New Delhi: In what may be a major cyber war offensive that sent the security establishment into a tizzy, the websites of a few Union ministries including ministry of defence, the ministry of home affairs, and the law and labour ministries were possibly ‘hacked’ on Friday afternoon.
“Needless to say, every possible step required to prevent any such eventuality in the future will be taken,” defence minister Nirmala Sitharam tweeted.
Defence ministry officials also said there were strong indications that organised hackers may be behind the effort and were possibly involved in defacing the MoD website.
On the other hand, National Cyber Security chief coordinator Gulshan Rai blamed it a storage system hardware failure.
This isn’t the first time hackers have targeted official websites of the Indian government. Authorities had temporarily taken down the ministry of home affairs website last year after a cyber attack was reported.
A month before that, suspected Pakistan-affiliated operatives had hacked the official website of the elite National Security Guard and defaced it with a profanity-laden message against the PM and anti-India content. In 2016, the websites and databases of seven Indian missions in Europe and Africa were reportedly hacked.
