Monday, September 22, 2003		Feature

Indo-Pak hackers battle in cyberspace
Kunal Jindal

AS Indian soldiers fight the proxy war launched by Pakistani terrorists, hackers are spearheading a war on another turf — the Web.

The first cyber war between India and Pakistan started after India carried out Pokhran II tests in May 1998. A group of hackers called milwOrm, immediately broke into Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s (BARC) Website and posted anti-India messages. Since then, hackers have been using the Internet as a medium to voice their opinions, political agendas. This demonstration is gradually transforming into cyber-terrorism. Very recently, Indian government sites were hacked.

However, most of anti-India hackers are not solely Pakistani citizens. Some of them are people of Pakistani origin based elsewhere. They are teenagers mostly and hacking is resorted to for fun and political reasons. Websites that has a large flow of domestic audience and government sites are special targets. Message posted are usually profane, insulting and lack visual appeal.

They also put up jokes about Indians on the pages they hack. The hackers, according to Indian officials, may be on the payroll of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Groups like GForce Pakistan, PHC, Silver lords, WFD and Pakistan hackers club are the major Pakistani hacking networks.

GForce Pakistan is an eight-member hack team. It had been very active recently, generating considerable publicity for itself in Asia. Pakistan Hackers’ Club is another hacker group that hacked Indian sites owned by the department of electronics, Ahmedabad online telephone directory and Parliament home page.

In retaliation to attacks by Pakistan hackers, an anti-GForce hacker called ‘True Indian’ managed to counter-attack. The Website of the terrorist group, "Laskar-e- Taiba," was hijacked way back in 2001. The Indian hacker replaced the home page with the message Mera Bharat Mahaan, with Indian tricolour in background. In another attack, the Pakistan government’s Website was ripped off its homepage and replaced with a message that said, "This site as been hacked by a patriotic Indian IT professional with the sole objective of trying to get the message across to Pakistan hackers to keep their hands off Indian Websites." Hacking is well spread into virtual space with hackers from both sides repeatedly attempting to deface sensitive sites. It is apparent that a new lot of hackers is much more equipped and trained.

Pakistani hackers recently hacked Punjab government’s IT department Website to retaliate against the Yaha virus unleashed against their government sites by Indian Snakes, a hacking group, earlier this year.

Indian and Pakistani hackers exist in chat rooms, mailing lists and telecom networks where they plan their future course of action. Even though anti-virus products and anti intrusion software is available commercially for protection, most of the latest versions of these US products are not even available for countries like ours for a reasonable period of time. Under the newly formed Indo-US Joint Task Force on cyber-terrorism, latest software and services should be made available for the Indian government.

As there are no international laws to punish such cyber hackers and the clandestine war like of the Pakistani brutalities in the Web world, the best possible solution is to remain ready and alert.