#HackAlert: 48 Indian government websites hacked this year alone

In a recent report, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) revealed that more than 313,000 cybersecurity incidents have happened this year through the end of October.

The number, which includes attacks like phishing, network scanning/probing, malicious code execution, viruses, and website hacking, has risen significantly from 208,000 attacks in 2018, 53,000 in 2017, and a mere 50,000 in 2016.

The worst thing about this situation is the fact that even the government is not fully shielded from cybercriminals.

Sanjay Dhotre, the minister of state for electronics and IT, recently said in the Rajya Sabha that 48 websites of central and state government departments have been hacked this year through October, per CERT-In.

Still, this number is significantly lesser than the last year's hacks.

Detailing the case of attacks, Dhotre added that hackers have been compromising systems around the world by employing masquerading techniques to mask the computer servers and systems from where the attacks are being launched.

He said the IP addresses retrieved from the attacks indicated the threat actors may have belonged to several foreign regions, including China, Pakistan, Netherlands, France, Taiwan, Tunisia, and Russia.

The figures revealed by CERT-in indicate the need for stringent cybersecurity practices and processes to protect not just citizens of the country but also critical government facilities from attackers.

State-sponsored attacks, be it a security breach or ransomware, can cripple a government and its working in no time, like how Lazarus Group's WannaCry left over 300,000 computers (including some of Indian government organizations) infected.