At least 50 IT companies in Hyderabad faced cyber attacks from Pakistan-based hackers over the past 10 days, the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) reportedly said on Thursday .
The cyber attacks were seemingly aimed at stealing information from the companies, using `ransomware'.
Reporting for the Times of India, Amrita Didyala stated,
The Cyber Security Forum officials said Pakistani hackers have used servers in Turkey , Somalia and Saudi Arabia to launch attacks against companies...Explaining the method of attacks, officials said the proxy servers were changed every five minutes, but somehow the ethical hackers team managed to nail the location of the actual attackers through IP addresses, the port used and the network node.
"A few of these attacks have been sorted out although majority are still being tackled. It is a sudden spurt in ransomware attacks. Almost all the attacks in the last 10 days have originated from Pakistan," Devraj Wodeyar, head, Cyber Security Forum under the Society of Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) was quoted as saying.
"Majority of these firms approached experts with complaints that their network transactions were not moving.When we investigated and went through the synopsis, we found them to be ransomware attacks launched from Riyadh," Wodeyar added.
The TOI report adds that the names of the companies have been withheld due to security issues.
This comes against the backdrop of a 'cyber war' launched by Pakistani hackers, after the surgical strikes conducted by India across the LOC.
The Hindu reported:
On October 3, the website of the National Green Tribunal in Delhi was hacked and pro-Pakistan messages were left on the home page. The next day, the website of a Kerala-based institute was defaced in a similar fashion, while on Monday evening, the website of the Government Law College (GLC) in Churchgate was targeted.
Reports also suggest that Pakistani groups on Thursday reportedly tried to hack into the Delhi police control room.
“We have customised our system in such a way that it will not get affected by such hacking attempts. Hackers are continuously bombarding to take control over Delhi police control room, but they will never succeed,” a senior official with the police control room said.