IP: India Claims Pakistani Hackers are Targeting Nuclear Related Fac ilities (fwd)

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

> Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 09:26:44 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Jonathan M. Smith" <jms@central.cis.upenn.edu>
> To: David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 18:28:42 -0500
> From: "ghamilton(contr-ato)" <ghamilton@snap.org>
> To: 'IAIPT' <IAIPT@archive.ia.isotic.org>,
>      "'TDM-Mtg@archive.ia.isotic.org'" <TDM-Mtg@archive.ia.isotic.org>
> Subject: India Claims Pakistani Hackers are Targeting Nuclear Related Fac
>     ilities
>
> Note that this is an unconfirmed press report citing unspecified sources in
> India's Intelligence Bureau (India's national internal security intelligence
> organization)
> --------------------------------------------------
> The Times of India - Jan 3, 2002
>
> http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=380255744
>
> Indo-Pak war raging in cyberspace
>
> SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA
>
> TIMES NEWS NETWORK
>
> NEW DELHI: Pakistani hackers have made several
> attempts to hack into Indian sites--especially those
> containing data on sensitive information relating to
> nuclear test management--to access sensitive information
> related to the country's security, said sources in the
> Intelligence Bureau.
>
> The sites targetted include those of Indira Gandhi Centre for
> Atomic Research (IGCAR), the Nuclear Science Centre
> (NSC) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
>
> Although these three sites have been repeatedly hacked in
> the past, according to IB officials, the recent attempts were
> aimed at accessing crucial data secured under severely
> firewalled servers.
>
> "It is quite apparent that the new breed of hackers are much
> more equipped and trained," say sources in the IB. Officials
> also say that there could have been at least a couple of
> successful attempts to break the codes of the sites.
>
> "There have been as many as seven attempts to hack into
> the BARC data since the attack on Indian Parliament on
> December 13. We are also on the lookout for spy programs
> that might have been installed," says an official.
>
> The IB has already written to the defence and the home
> ministry about the issue. The two ministries have, in turn,
> sought the help of cyber security firms to shore up the sites.
>
> The hackers, according to officials, may be on the payroll of
> Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.
>
> There has been a history of infiltration into Indian sites with
> sensitive information by Pakistani hackers. The first
> infiltration into BARC was in 1998, when it was hacked by
> three members of Milworm, a Pakistan-based hacker group.
> Ever since, BARC servers have been favourite targets of
> Pakistani hackers.
>
> "This year alone, at least one spy program has been
> detected in a BARC mail server," says an official.
>
> The first intrusion into IGCAR was reported in January last
> year when G-Force, a Pakistani hacker group, defaced its
> main server. Subsequently, other servers in IGCAR have
> been repeatedly hacked by G-Force.
>
> Indian intelligence officials have identified one hacker as
> Rsnake, who is said to have copied the master database
> from IGCAR and provided some data to Pakistani
> intelligence as proof of his access.
>
> The ISI, in turn, has realised the importance of hackers after
> BARC was hacked in 1998. The first Pakistani hacker
> group-Pakistani Hackers Club-was formed by two
> 'hacktivists' who used the pseudonyms DoctorNuker and
> Mr Sweet. DoctorNuker took to hacking when he was a
> computer science student at Karachi University. Along with
> fellow hacker Dizasta (real name: Fahad Shamshek Khan),
> he started hacking into critical Indian and US servers.
>
> DoctorNuker, say IB officials, was the first hacker whose
> skills were recognised by the ISI and under the latter's
> directives, focused on critical Indian government servers
> (especially those relating to nuclear and atomic
> establishments).
>
> But sources say the most active Pakistani hacker in the
> recent past has been a person impersonating as Rsnake,
> who started hacking from the Netherlands where he was
> working with a group of portals. Inspired by DoctorNuker,
> he started the hacker group G-Force from Holland.
>
> The ISI has now got him to Pakistan to coordinate other
> hackers targeting Indian websites, claim IB officials.
>
> Jerry Hamilton
> DARPA IA Operational Experimentation SETA
> Schafer Corporation
> 703-526-0172
> Fax: 703-526-9849
> Cell: 703-582-9624
> ghamilton@schafercorp-ballston.com
> ghamilton@snap.org

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