"One New Delhi-based IT specialist, who works on government websites and did not want to be named for security reasons, said in the cyber war Pakistanis have an upper hand because Pakistani hackers are organised in groups whereas most of the Indian ones are working alone. Also, hackers based in Pakistan were motivated by religious reasons, experts said."
As an update to the previous post, further reports of tit-for-tat cyber attacks between Indian and Pakistani "hackers" are surfacing. From the Indian online business magazine, domain-b.com:
"Hostilities between India and Pakistan seem to have reached cyberspace even as the two neighbors strive to resolve differences through dialogue. The first casualty in the cyber war appears to be the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) website that was hacked by pro-Pakistan hackers.
"Ohter [sic] Indian web sites that have come in for similar treatment are web sites of Bank of Baroda and that of a news channel."
And from the Pakistani Daily website:
"In what seems to be an intensifying cyber war between hackers of Pakistan and India, Pakistani hackers managed to hack website of ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) of India on Tuesday.
"A group named ‘Pakistan Cyber Army’ (PCA) said that it hacked Indian ONGC website in response to hacking of the website of Pakistan’s OGRA (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) by Indian hackers."
"The cyber warfare began in mid-November when an Indian group of hackers known as HMG or "Guards of Hindustan" defaced the website of Pakistan's Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and deleted all its data."
"Apparently acting in retaliation, a group calling itself the Pakistan Cyber Army (PCA) yesterday [25-Nov-2008] hacked five Indian websites, including those of ONGC, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Indian Railways and the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Ratlam."
"Whoever commits the offence of cyber terrorism and causes death of any person shall be punishable with death or imprisonment for life," according to a copy of the ordinance, published by the state-run APP news agency.
"The law will apply to Pakistanis and foreigners whether living in Pakistan or abroad.
"The ordinance described cyber terrorism as accessing of a computer network or electronic system by someone who then "knowingly engages in or attempts to engage in a terroristic act."
"The ordinance listed several definitions of a "terroristic act" including stealing or copying, or attempting to steal or copy, classified information necessary to manufacture any form of chemical, biological or nuclear weapon."
"The lesson is that the Internet is still rather vulnerable as the multitude of websites, data and resources on it are still reachable only via a few routers and access points. Should something happen to one of these systems it could cause Internet and website outages and chaos in countries further afield. Recent events have also shown weaknesses in the hard lines that connect it all, namely the undersea cables that were recently damaged in the Mediterranean.
Whether it be man or Mother Nature that causes damage to these systems, the end result is the same: Internet blackouts. The likelihood of these types of problems will increase as the web expands, more people come to rely on it, and it essentially becomes a bigger target."
