Hackers get cracking, cops wait for plaints

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even after a week since a Syrian hacker broke into about a dozen government websites and defaced them, the cyber cell of the Kerala Police and the respective departments whose websites have been hacked are yet to take any action.
A Syrian hacker, Dr SHA6H, breached and defaced 11 Kerala state government websites on December 7.
The websites hacked are of: Kerala state blood transfusion council (blood.kerala.gov.in), Kerala state planning board (spb.kerala.gov.in), Right to Education Kerala (rtekerala.gov.in), Farm information bureau (fibkerala.gov.in), and Fisheries network information system (fishnetkerala.gov.in), INSIGHT (insight.kerala.gov.in), Thiruvananthapuram medical college (tmc.kerala.gov.in), Thiruvananthapuram (trivandrum.gov.in), Ombudsman for LSG Kerala (ombudsmanlsgiker.gov.in), the Arogyakeralam national rural health mission web portal (arogyakeralam.gov.in) and site for civil registrations for LSG Kerala (sevana.gov.in).
On typing the URL of these websites an error message is displayed which reads, 'Website is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly.'
"We have not received any intimation from CERT-K (computer emergency response team-Kerala) in this regard. The IT Mission, Kerala, and CERT-K should jointly conduct a preliminary investigation into the matter and later hand over the case to us for further investigation. The high-tech cell has no authority to probe issues unless we receive a complaint," said a senior official attached to Hi-Tech cell. Despite repeated attempts, officials of the CERT-K remained unreachable.
Meanwhile, an incubated firm at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, suggested some preventive measures and strategies against hacking.Microx Cyber Security and Technology Pvt Ltd suggested the measures at a news conference in Press Club, Thiruvananthapuram, on Saturday. "A proper static code analysis should be which can show the security errors and mis-configurations even at the production phase. Security auditing for all websites should be at regular intervals to prevent hacking attempts," said Rajesh Babu, CEO of Microx Cyber Security and Technology Pvt Ltd.