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Maharashtra Cyber officials have confirmed that over 15 lakh cyberattacks have been made on Indian websites over the last few weeks. Out of these attempts, only 150 were successful. The attacks were traced to seven Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups. They mostly came from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco, and other Middle Eastern nations. The cyberattack have increased after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
Despite the India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement, online threats have continued although the intensity has decreased. The newly published "Road of Sindoor" report describes the tactics, extent, and source of the attacks. It was presented to national security organizations such as the Director General of Police and State Intelligence Department.
The attackers used a broad array of tactics:
Malware distribution
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks
Website defacement
GPS spoofing
Although India's cyber defense prevented the majority of attacks, a few sites were hacked successfully. In particular, the Kulgaon Badlapur Municipal Council and the Defence Nursing College in Jalandhar had their websites defaced.
Official claims by Pakistan of hacking prominent Indian infrastructure, including:
Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport
Indian aviation infrastructure
Election Commission networks
Cyber units also dismissed false reports of hacking India's banking system. The Pakistani media claimed their hackers caused power grid collapses, jammed satellite communications. They also said to have interfered with military resources such as the Northern Command and BrahMos missile storage facilities. All these claims were rebuffed by the Road of Sindoor report.
The ‘Road of Sindoor’ report is a follow-up to the earlier ‘Echoes of Pahalgam’ report. The following hacker groups were identified:
APT 36
Pakistan Cyber Force
Team Insane PK
Mysterious Bangladesh
Indo Hacks Sec
Cyber Group HOAX 1337
National Cyber Crew
Yashasvi Yadav, Additional Director General of Police, confirmed that India's air defense systems including the S-400, successfully neutralised any physical retaliatory strikes claimed by Pakistani sources.
He also reiterated the significance of public alertness and cautioned citizens against accepting unverified viral posts. Maharashtra Cyber has deleted more than 5,000 fake news postings and marked 80 items of misinformation for additional takedown.
"The attacks on our cyber infrastructure are continuous and systemic, but our countermeasures have stood up well so far. We request people to remain vigilant and use only authentic sources," Yadav added.
The cyber warfare emerging as a rising weapon in international tensions should come as no surprise, given the technologically advanced times we live in. However, it's important to note that Indian agencies are ready to discredit any false claims with concrete evidence. It also shows the nation’s prowess in augmenting cyber defenses while monitoring hostile action.
