SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submission Preview
India v Pakistan Cricket Rivalry Boils Over Into Cyber-war
From the: that's-not-cricket department
John Leyden over at El Reg is reporting [theregister.co.uk] on a survey of real-world events and "hacktivist" operations [recordedfuture.com], by Recorded Future, a "threat intelligence" firm.
The Recorded Future piece states:
On March 2, 2014, Pakistan defeated India in a cricket match in the Asia Cup held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The next day (March 3), in Meerut, India, 67 Kashmiri students at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University were suspended for having cheered for Pakistan and distributing sweets after their win.
Then on March 5, 2014, the website of Swami Vivekanand Subharti University was hacked by a group claiming to be the Pakistan Cyber Army (a.k.a. Bangladesh Cyber Army) in response to expelling pro-Pakistan students.
Finally, on March 7, 2014 the sedition charges against expelled students are dropped but they could still face prosecution over the incident.
Based on this past event, it’s likely that cyber activity will take place between Indian and Pakistani actors before, during, and after the next cricket match between India and Pakistan on March 19 in Dharamsala, India.
The El Reg article goes on to say:
Hacktivists from the Pakistan Cyber Army (PCA) have targeted India since 2007. Government and private sites targeted by the PCA at various times have included the Indian Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Railways, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Central Bank of India, and the State Government of Kerala. Recorded Future has republished Facebook posts seemingly by member of the PCA that provide tutorials on how to set up phishing attacks.
Individuals affiliated with the PCA may have skills including zero-day vulnerabilities, SQL injection, WEP cracking, and spear phishing, according to reports by Recorded Future and other threat intel experts, including ThreatConnect and FireEye.
It’s far from all one-way traffic. Indian hackers took part in a revenge attack in response to the deadly 2 January attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. Indian hacker groups include the Indian Black Hats and the Mallu Cyber Soldiers. Methods used by these groups include SQL injection and PHP web application hacks.
