Pakistan-based cyber attackers attempt to hack 4 Armed Forces-linked websites

Pakistan-based persons have made an unsuccessful attempt to launch a cyber attack on four websites related to the Indian Armed forces.

This comes a week after the Pahalgam terror attack and repeated ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir over the past four days.

The websites of Army Public School (APS) Srinagar and APS Ranikhet were targeted with inflammatory propaganda. APS Srinagar also faced a distributed-denial-of-service assault. Another attempted breach was tried on the Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) database, while a concurrent effort was made to compromise the Indian Air Force Placement Organisation portal.

All four sites were promptly isolated, and restorative action was undertaken; no operational or classified networks were affected at any stage, sources said.

Sources in the security establishment said the cyber attacker was using moniker “IOK Hacker” (Internet of Khilafah). The group sought to deface web pages, disrupt online services and extract personal information. India’s layered cyber security architecture detected the intrusions in real time and traced its origin as Pakistan.

According to officials, Pakistan has redirected its effort towards publicly accessible welfare and educational websites after finding mission-critical national networks impenetrable.