Pak hackers target LDRP Institute site

On Monday, those who visited the website of the LDRP Institute of Technology and Research,Gandhinagar, found its home page defaced by a Pakistan-based hacker group. The group had left the message, "party has just started".

It is one of the many instances of Indian institutions being targeted by Pakistani hackersover the past month. Cyber security experts said that a web page of an Ahmedabad-based university and the web page of an IIT were also hacked on Monday. But these pages were quickly repaired.

S K Mantrala, the registrar of Kadi Sarva Vishwavidyalaya (KSV), told media on Tuesday that a complaint would be filed after Wednesday as Tuesday and Wednesday are public holidays. "We will gather required information about the incident and approach police," he said.

City-based cyber security experts said that after India's surgical strikes across the LOC, the incidents of organized cyber attacks from Pakistan have risen dramatically. Indian hacker groups are also retaliating by targeting websites of Pakistan government and institutions.

"The defacements are also about accessing unsecured database," said an expert. "As was seen in the recent Yahoo security breach, data today is worth millions of dollars. Thus, while recovering the site, focus should also be on securing data."

Sunny Vaghela, an Ahmedabad-based cyber security expert, said that theGovernment of India has already made it compulsory for websites and applications using public data for business or other purposes to undergo a security audit.