“Massive Cyber Attack Targets 12,000 Indian Government Websites: National Security at Risk”

A hacking group known as “Hacktivist Indonesia” has announced its intention to target 12,000 Indian government websites in the near future. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) has circulated an alert to all agencies, Central and State government wings, stating that the group has circulated a list of websites they plan to attack. While authorities have noted that the hackers could be operating within or outside the country, the location or origin of ‘Hacktivist Indonesia’ remains unknown. The group has been linked to cyber attacks in Sweden, Israel and the US.

However, the Indian government has reassured the public that its websites are “updated” and “capable” of handling such threats, and the alert was circulated on the basis of inputs received by its Cyber Threat Intelligence wing following open-source intelligence. The list reportedly includes thousands of government websites, including Aadhaar, police departments, space, Income Tax and consulate websites. Cyber experts in the Ministry of Home Affairs have noted that the group has been active since last year and usually tries to slow down government websites by sending heavy internet traffic through Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. The Central government has already informed the states through cyber-crime and cyber security on how to protect their websites, and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has formulated the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) in 2009 to ensure the quality and accessibility of government guidelines. The GIGW 3.0 was introduced in 2021, which offers specific guidance to government organizations on how to improve the user interface and user experience (UI and UX) by incorporating features such as intuitive page loading and using state-of-the-art content management systems.

The Indian public has been advised to report any cyber attacks on the cybercrime.gov.in website or national helpline number 1930.