21 Andhra Pradesh government websites hacked

HYDERABAD: On the very day that the government boasted about being able to present a “paperless budget”, the security of its department websites showed cracks with almost 21 of them getting hacked. Reports said that the hacked websites contained information regarding the budget to be presented in the Assembly on Thursday. The hackers did not deface the homepage of the sites but added an extra link on it with the URL http://budget.ap.gov.in/Dz.htm. The sites hacked include those for government orders, gazette notifications, commercial taxes, horticulture etc.But finance minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy denied that the hackers had got access to the budget and said it would be kept confidential until it is presented in the Assembly Friday. He said that the budget had not been uploaded in the server as it is still to be presented.The sites have been temporarily shut down to facilitate analysis and probe.Meanwhile, principal secretary for information technology Sanjay Jaju was cautious about calling the incident hacking and said it could even be due to a virus attack. But the government has, nonetheless, lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime wing of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and a team has started investigation.Jaju said they have also brought the matter to the notice of the Director General of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), New Delhi.Government sources feel that the hackers could be from abroad. Close sources said that the hacking has brought into focus the security of government data kept online and admitted that the security given to department websites is weak when compared to banks.‘It’s a Wake Up Call for Govt’When asked about recent hacking incidents, Ankit Fadia, an independent computer security consultant and author of ‘Ethical Hacking’ said: “Recently the websites of even the Border Security Force were hacked. I think it’s a wake up call for the government to start plugging the security loopholes. But, on the other hand, the hacking of these 21 websites looks very targeted as government websites do not usually upload sensitive documents. So, there is definitely an objective behind this.