Prophet row: Unidentified hackers gained access to the website of Thane Police in Maharashtra and uploaded a message demanding apology to Muslims "all over the world", police said on Tuesday.
Several Indian websites have been hacked in the last few days and these attacks seemed to have originated in Indonesia and Malaysia, said a senior official of state police here.
The Thane police's website was restored by afternoon, he said, adding that a First Information Report has been registered against unidentified persons under the Information Technology Act and other relevant provisions. The message that popped up on the compromised portal on Tuesday morning said “Hacked by one hat cyber team”.
"Hello Indian Government, Hello everyone. Again and again you make trouble with the problem of the Islamic Religion....Hurry up and apologize to Muslims all over the world!! We don't stand still when our apostle is insulted," it added.
Police noticed it around 8.30 am, following which cyber teams of Thane Police worked for over six hours and restored the site, said an official.
The hacking seemed to have taken place around 4 am, he said.
Maharashtra Cyber Additional Director General of Police Madhukar Pandey said they have informed CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), the nodal agency of the Indian government for dealing with cyber threats, and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) about "the defacement incident."
"We are also coordinating with the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center," Pandey said.
After the "recent incidents of communal nature" that took place in various places in the country, some hacker groups had given a call to hack and deface Indian websites, he said.
Controversy had erupted recently when BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma (now suspended by the party) allegedly made derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammad. While the BJP and Indian government condemned the remarks, it led to strong reactions from many Muslim countries, and violent protests inside India.
As per ADG Pandey, a preliminary investigation suggested that hackers from Malaysia and Indonesia were behind the defacement of websites. Several Indian websites were attacked in the last three days, following which all government organizations, as well as the NIC, have been advised to examine the vulnerabilities in their websites and plug the loopholes, another official said.
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