Cyber Wars Between Pakistan and India

We all are aware of the wars India and Pakistan havesites. G-Force's "achievements" includes National
fought and the resulted destruction especially preciousOceanic and Atmospheric Agency and three military
human lives. In the current information age, somesites associated with the US Defence Test and
battles are not only fought with guns and tanks butEvaluation Professional Institute.
also through media, internet and pen. Since the adventDuring this cyberwar, in December 2000, a news story
of Information Technology among the masses ofcreated waves that claimed that an Indian hacker's
South Asia in mid 1990s, the pace of cyber warsgroup "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 Mayrevealed that the actual site of Pakistani government is
1998, when India conducted its nuclear tests. Soonpak.gov.pk, not pakgov.org and pakgov.org was in fact
after India officially announced the test, a group ofregistered by the alleged hacker himself with fake
Pakistan-based hackers called milw0rm broke into theinformation.
Bhabha Atomic Research Center web site andOn the Indian side, there are various hackers groups
posted anti-India and anti-nuclear messages. Thethat have defaced Pakistani sites. Among them, the
cyberwars usually have been limited to defacementsmost famous one is H2O or the Hindustan Hackers
of each others' sites. Defacement is a low levelOrganization. However, the independent as well as
damage, in which only the home page of a site isIndian analysts admit that at this cyber-front, Pakistan
replaced with hacker's own page, usually with somehas always been winning this war. There are two main
message for the victim. Such defacements started inreasons for this. Firstly, Pakistani hackers are
May 1998 and continued during Kargil War in 1999 andorganized in groups where as most of the Indian
then during that era when the tension between Indiahackers 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 washackers based in Pakistan, to do something for the
very crucial, when the troops were busy across thecause of Muslim brothers & sisters in Palestine and
LOC exchanging gunshots and the hackers busy inKashmir.
defacing sites of each others.At the government level, both the countries are doing
According to attrition.org, a web site that trackstheir best to curb hacktivism. NIC (National Informatics
computer security related developments on theCentre) 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 thenecessary steps to eliminate all forms of cybercrime,
Pakistani websites were hacked 7 times in 1999 andincluding hacking.
18 times in 2000. During the first half of 2001, 150 IndianA few of the Indian sites defaced by Pakistani
websites were defaced.hackers are:
During Kargil war, the first Indian site reported to be1. Indian Science Congress
hacked was established by the Indian government to2. National Informatics Centre
provide factual information about daily events in the3. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (State-run
Kashmir Valley. The hackers posted photographsinternational voice carrier)
showing Indian military forces allegedly killing Kashmiri4. External Affairs Mnistry
militants. The pictures sported captions like 'Massacre,'5. UP government site
Torture,' 'Extrajudicial execution' and 'The agony of6. Ministry of Information Technology
crackdown' and blamed the Indian government for its7. Mahindra & Mahindra
alleged atrocities in Kashmir. That was followed by8. Rediff Chat
defacement of numerous Indian governmental sites9. Asian Age newspaper
and reciprocal attacks on Pakistani sites.10. Aptech India
Two prominent Pakistani hacker groups are PHC11. University of Mumbai
(Pakistan Hackers Club) and G-Force. The founder of12. Official site of Gujarat Government
PHC is Dr. Nuker. The US Department of Justice has13. GlaxoWellcome India
identified "Doctor Nuker" as Misbah Khan of Karachi.14. The Parliament home page
Misbah Khan was involved in defacement of the15. 16. Department of Electronics
official site of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs17. Engineering Export Promotion Council, Ministry of
Committee). Doctor Nuker struck back with anCommerce
interview to a magazine Newsbytes where he claimed18. Center for Advanced Technology
that the 'federal grand jury made a mistake in indictingA few of the Pakistani sites defaced by Indian
Misbah Khan of Karachi' and that 'he merely useshackers are:
insecure servers in Pakistan to get online anonymously'.1. The Nation (newspaper)
Doctor Nuker has been featured in international2. Pakistan Television
publications including Time and Newsweek.3. Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation
G-Force is based in Lahore and it consists of eight4. Official site of Punjab Government
members. Both Pakistan Hackers Club and G-Force5. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and
are professional hackers with a specific aim: to workTechnology
for the cause of Kashmir and Palestine. It is still to be6. Prime bank
seen how their hackings are helping the cause of7. Hamdard University
Palestine or Kashmir! Pakistan Hackers Club has beenIf fighting with our neighbours is in our genes, we can
around since quite long and apart from Indian site, theyfight through the internet, media, newspapers and
have defaced many USA and Israeli sites including USbooks but let us not fight with guns and missiles. There
Department of Energy's site. G-Force was founded inmay be humiliation if a website is defaced but at least
May 1999 after the nuclear tests and their initial targetno human life is lost.
was Indian sites but after 9/11, their concentration hasPlease visit India-Pakistan Friendship Club (IPFC) to
been shifted to US-based sites. According toaccess more articles related to India and Pakistan.
zone-h.org, G-Force has successfully defaced 212