Hackers vandalise VSNL site

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www1.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/170800/detFRO04.htm

Thursday, August 17, 2000, New Delhi

HACKERS, APPARENTLY owing allegiance to Pakistan, hacked the Videsh
Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) site on Tuesday night and left behind
crude messages of alleged Indian brutality.

The defaced site read: "Doodh Nahi Piyoge to aisa he hoga" and "India
celebrates its Independence Day and Kashmiris are still fighting for
freedom.".

The VSNL site was hacked late on Tuesday evening. VSNL authorities
removed the offending messages the following day.

"I would not say that the VSNL site was hacked. What the hackers did
was that they added one additional page to the VSNL site", said Mr.
Amitabh Kumar, Director (Operations) of the VSNL.

The messages left by the hackers were crude and one of the message
recounted in gory detail an alleged incident of Army brutality on
April 27 jawans in the Handwara area of J&K. After giving out the
details, the hacker exhorted "idiots" to await the second part of the
story.

Thrilled with the fact that they managed to deface the site, the
hackers left juvenile messages like "VSNL, may you have an unhappy
Independence Day".

Mr. Amitabh Kumar said that the VSNL had taken all precautions it
could. "We have had security precautions like firewall and other such
devices. But under some circumstances, people can access the site"
said Mr. Kumar. He denied that the VSNL had anticipated such an
attack.

"The VSNL site is under attack all the time. We take all precautions
to the extent we can. For August 15 we had taken special precautions,"
said Mr. Kumar. He pointed out that the hackers had gained access to
the VSNL site and managed to deface it for "only a little time" on
Tuesday night.

Pak hackers had hacked the National Infomatics Centre site on June 6,
99. Even then, the NIC was not even aware that its site,
http:\\asm.nic.in, had been hacked and that India had been abused in
the foulest language on the site.

Mr Prashant Deorah of Purtech Internet Private Limited, which has
worked on some aspects of the VSNL site, said, "Yes, normal
precautions like firewall coupled with software and hardware support
have to be taken. But I agree that on important days like Independence
Day, special measures need to be taken.


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