New Delhi, Jan. 31: Hackers have increased their attack on Indian websites which end with “.in”. According to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), 3,089 Indian websites with domain “.in” were hacked and defaced in 2009 as compared to 2,642 websites in 2008 — a significant rise of 17 per cent. In 2007, 1,693 websites with “.in” domain were defaced.
Last week, former national security adviser (NSA), Mr M.K. Narayanan, had said that the Chinese hackers had tried to penetrate computers of his offices. The office of the NSA was attacked on the same day when Google and other finance and US defence establishments reported attack from hackers in China. After the attack Google had threatened to exit China. In defacement, the hacker changes the visual appearance of the attacked site. He/she breaks into the web server and replaces it with his own content. They usually leave their code name to show case their power to break into high profile web sites. In 2006, an international hacker Public 77 who had defaced Trai’s web site had left a message: “Public 77 was here.” These defacements are carried for different motives — including fun, political, revenge or just proving their competency, according to an earlier paper of CERT-In. “.in” is India’s top-level domain on Internet. Like .com, .in can be used for e-mail, web sites, and other applications. But unlike other domains, “.in” is a unique symbol of India and its role in the world.“Rise in the defacement is due to poor security mechanism adopted by the individuals and small traders who are increasingly hosting their own web sites,” said a senior industry official. “Currently there has been tremendous rise in hacking of web sites and Indian web sites are no exception. I don’t believe that this rise in the hacking of web sites with domain name “.in” has something to do with it being India specific,” he added. Asked whether China could be behind this rise in defacement he replied: “China has entered into hacking in a big way. They can deface web site of some specific countries to decrease general confidence of the people in them.”
PAWAN BALI