Pak hackers `deface' Indian website

Pak hackers `deface' Indian website
RESHMA PATIL

PUNE, DEC 28: Happy 2000, you pathetic fools,'' was the rude message staring the face of websurfers this morning, who discovered that the website of the Indian Science Congress (www.isc2000.org.in) was completely erased by hackers Monday night. The hackers had left the message, ``Pakistan OWNS! This defacement is dedicated to all the Kashmiris senselessly murdered by the Indian government over 50 years.'' It was restored within an hour on Tuesday, and is now being manned round-the-clock by technicians.

With over three lakh hits since it was launched a few months back, the website offered the hackers a phenomenal reach for their abusive propaganda. The hacking was detected around 8:30 am, after the organising committee of the ISC was flooded with calls from scientists from corners as far flung as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Bangalore, while they unsuccessfully tried to log in.

A team of engineers from the C-DAC led by Sanjay Londhe and Vivek Sawant swung into action, restoring the entiredata within an hour. An unsuccessful attempt at defacing the site had been detected by the ISC team 25 days back.``Is the Indian government so desperately in need of fresh ideas that they had to resort to hijacking their own plane in order to find something to pin on Pakistan?'' ask the hackers. Calling themselves evilroot, qrs, drac, ps, miller and a-ngelz, their message originated from http://mos.lordz.net The hackers are probably based in London, say the engineers who restored the site. Crying out in no uncertain terms about whose side their allegiance lies, this blatantly loud group stamped their coarse views from Kargil to Ayodhya, on the site.

``Are Indian people so disillusioned that they think Kargil was a victory? Does India really think it can silence thousands of Kashmiris...'' the message said.

The hacking threw the University in a tizzy, as it is already groaning under hectic preparations for the ISC 2000, which will descend on its campus with a 5000-odd academic guest list from January 3.The site is monitored by servers in the Science and Technology Park (STP) and the Bioinformatics Centre at the University. A new server was promptly installed to prevent a replay of this unpleasant incident.

Exhaustive information about the upcoming ISC, the five-point agenda, replies to surfers' questions, plenary sessions, lectures, the national science and technology exhibition, the display by the defence forces, children's programmes, hospitality arrangements, visiting faculty, history of the ISC, and the University had been launched on the web by a 15-member University team, on the Linux operating system. Condemning the incident, vice-chancellor Arun Nigavekar said that it was probably because of the world-wide popularity of the site that the hackers chose it ``to propagate their message of disregard for India.''