Chhattisgarh govt websites defaced; hacker posts Pakistani flag, warning

Exposing cybersecurity flaws of key departments in Chhattisgarh, a pro-Pakistani hacker defaced the website and posted a Pakistani flag with a warning message.

Representational Image

RAIPUR: Known Pakistani hacker Faisal Afzal is back on the action as he hacked websites of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister's Office (CMO) and Public Works Department (PWD) on Monday and Tuesday. 

Defacing the website, the hacker posted a Pakistani flag with a message on the web page, 'Never forget me'.

On Monday, the Chhattisgarh CMO website, cmo.cg.gov.in, was hacked for nearly two hours with a display message that read, "Everyday, a website gets hacked. Today is your day."

"Hacked by Faisal. We are team Pak Cyber Attackers. We are Pak Hackers,", the hacker said in the message, challenging the IT skills of cyber experts.

The hacker also left a warning for the admin with a message, "Remove your flaws or else anything can happen."

After being informed about the incident, the team of the technical department came into action. The information was given to the National Informatics Center (NIC). The officials shut down the website to take back its control.

Both the websites remained offline for several hours before restored and started working after their security features were strengthened.

This was not the first incident when a state government website came under the target of hackers.

In 2015, at least 24 websites of Chhattisgarh government were hacked and defaced by Faisal. 

State websites, including cgprosecution.gov.in, sericulture.cgstate.gov.in, choice.gov.in, cgvyapam.choice.gov.in, cglabour.gov.in and others, were hacked by Pakistan-based hackers.

The home pages of these websites were defaced and displayed Pakistan's flag with a remark saying "Rummy Khan was here, Jux a security round". The websites were taken down immediately by the state government.

Pakistani hackers had then hacked Chhattisgarh NIT's website twice, mocking at the low security of Indian websites and had threatened of more such cyber attacks.