| We all are aware of the wars India and Pakistan have | | | | sites. G-Force's "achievements" includes National |
| fought and the resulted destruction especially precious | | | | Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and three military |
| human lives. In the current information age, some | | | | sites associated with the US Defence Test and |
| battles are not only fought with guns and tanks but | | | | Evaluation Professional Institute. |
| also through media, internet and pen. Since the advent | | | | During this cyberwar, in December 2000, a news story |
| of Information Technology among the masses of | | | | created waves that claimed that an Indian hacker's |
| South Asia in mid 1990s, the pace of cyber wars | | | | group "Patriotic Indians" has defaced the official site of |
| between Pakistan and India have also been increased. | | | | Pakistani government pakgov.org. Later, it was |
| Cyberwars between the two countries started in May | | | | revealed that the actual site of Pakistani government is |
| 1998, when India conducted its nuclear tests. Soon | | | | pak.gov.pk, not pakgov.org and pakgov.org was in fact |
| after India officially announced the test, a group of | | | | registered by the alleged hacker himself with fake |
| Pakistan-based hackers called milw0rm broke into the | | | | information. |
| Bhabha Atomic Research Center web site and | | | | On the Indian side, there are various hackers groups |
| posted anti-India and anti-nuclear messages. The | | | | that have defaced Pakistani sites. Among them, the |
| cyberwars usually have been limited to defacements | | | | most famous one is H2O or the Hindustan Hackers |
| of each others' sites. Defacement is a low level | | | | Organization. However, the independent as well as |
| damage, in which only the home page of a site is | | | | Indian analysts admit that at this cyber-front, Pakistan |
| replaced with hacker's own page, usually with some | | | | has always been winning this war. There are two main |
| message for the victim. Such defacements started in | | | | reasons for this. Firstly, Pakistani hackers are |
| May 1998 and continued during Kargil War in 1999 and | | | | organized in groups where as most of the Indian |
| then during that era when the tension between India | | | | hackers are working as solo. Secondly and the most |
| and Pakistan was at its peak from Dec 2001 to 2002. | | | | important reason is the religious motivation of the |
| Therefore, the period between 1999 to 2002 was | | | | hackers based in Pakistan, to do something for the |
| very crucial, when the troops were busy across the | | | | cause of Muslim brothers & sisters in Palestine and |
| LOC exchanging gunshots and the hackers busy in | | | | Kashmir. |
| defacing sites of each others. | | | | At the government level, both the countries are doing |
| According to attrition.org, a web site that tracks | | | | their best to curb hacktivism. NIC (National Informatics |
| computer security related developments on the | | | | Centre) of India and Cybercrime division of FIA |
| Internet, show that attacks on Indian websites | | | | (Federal Investigation Authority) in Pakistan are taking |
| increased from 4 in 1999 to 72 in 2000 where as the | | | | necessary steps to eliminate all forms of cybercrime, |
| Pakistani websites were hacked 7 times in 1999 and | | | | including hacking. |
| 18 times in 2000. During the first half of 2001, 150 Indian | | | | A few of the Indian sites defaced by Pakistani |
| websites were defaced. | | | | hackers are: |
| During Kargil war, the first Indian site reported to be | | | | 1. Indian Science Congress |
| hacked was established by the Indian government to | | | | 2. National Informatics Centre |
| provide factual information about daily events in the | | | | 3. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (State-run |
| Kashmir Valley. The hackers posted photographs | | | | international voice carrier) |
| showing Indian military forces allegedly killing Kashmiri | | | | 4. External Affairs Mnistry |
| militants. The pictures sported captions like 'Massacre,' | | | | 5. UP government site |
| Torture,' 'Extrajudicial execution' and 'The agony of | | | | 6. Ministry of Information Technology |
| crackdown' and blamed the Indian government for its | | | | 7. Mahindra & Mahindra |
| alleged atrocities in Kashmir. That was followed by | | | | 8. Rediff Chat |
| defacement of numerous Indian governmental sites | | | | 9. Asian Age newspaper |
| and reciprocal attacks on Pakistani sites. | | | | 10. Aptech India |
| Two prominent Pakistani hacker groups are PHC | | | | 11. University of Mumbai |
| (Pakistan Hackers Club) and G-Force. The founder of | | | | 12. Official site of Gujarat Government |
| PHC is Dr. Nuker. The US Department of Justice has | | | | 13. GlaxoWellcome India |
| identified "Doctor Nuker" as Misbah Khan of Karachi. | | | | 14. The Parliament home page |
| Misbah Khan was involved in defacement of the | | | | 15. 16. Department of Electronics |
| official site of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs | | | | 17. Engineering Export Promotion Council, Ministry of |
| Committee). Doctor Nuker struck back with an | | | | Commerce |
| interview to a magazine Newsbytes where he claimed | | | | 18. Center for Advanced Technology |
| that the 'federal grand jury made a mistake in indicting | | | | A few of the Pakistani sites defaced by Indian |
| Misbah Khan of Karachi' and that 'he merely uses | | | | hackers are: |
| insecure servers in Pakistan to get online anonymously'. | | | | 1. The Nation (newspaper) |
| Doctor Nuker has been featured in international | | | | 2. Pakistan Television |
| publications including Time and Newsweek. | | | | 3. Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation |
| G-Force is based in Lahore and it consists of eight | | | | 4. Official site of Punjab Government |
| members. Both Pakistan Hackers Club and G-Force | | | | 5. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and |
| are professional hackers with a specific aim: to work | | | | Technology |
| for the cause of Kashmir and Palestine. It is still to be | | | | 6. Prime bank |
| seen how their hackings are helping the cause of | | | | 7. Hamdard University |
| Palestine or Kashmir! Pakistan Hackers Club has been | | | | If fighting with our neighbours is in our genes, we can |
| around since quite long and apart from Indian site, they | | | | fight through the internet, media, newspapers and |
| have defaced many USA and Israeli sites including US | | | | books but let us not fight with guns and missiles. There |
| Department of Energy's site. G-Force was founded in | | | | may be humiliation if a website is defaced but at least |
| May 1999 after the nuclear tests and their initial target | | | | no human life is lost. |
| was Indian sites but after 9/11, their concentration has | | | | Please visit India-Pakistan Friendship Club (IPFC) to |
| been shifted to US-based sites. According to | | | | access more articles related to India and Pakistan. |
| zone-h.org, G-Force has successfully defaced 212 | | | | |