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Hacktivist activity surges in both countries in the wake of armed clashes over the Kashmir region in previous days.
Pakistan and India may currently be sharing a tense ceasefire since a flashpoint in the Kashmir region saw shots fired by both sides, the cyber war appears to be going nowhere, and has been heating up for some time.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against both sides have been rising since 14 April, just over a week before the deadly terrorist attack in the town of Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir on 22 April.
A few days later, according to analysis by NSFOCUS, DDoS attacks against India surged by more than 500 per cent, while attacks targeting Pakistan rose even more, by over 700 per cent.
“During the exchange of fire between the two sides, the attack remained at a high level. Subsequently, starting from May 1, the two sides entered a stalemate,” NSFOCUS said in a recent blog post.
“Coupled with international intervention, the situation between the two sides eased somewhat, and the performance of cyber space was consistent with reality. DDoS attacks showed a gradual downward trend.”
That said, the DDoS activity has not returned to pre-April levels.
During the surge in activity, the websites of several Indian organisations were disrupted for as much as three hours, with the victims including POWERGRID, the Unique Identification Authority of India, and the state-owned telecommunications operator BSNL.
The Pakistani websites that were taken down, albeit briefly, include WorldCall Telecom Limited, the Pakistan Emergency Services Department, and the Ministry of Commerce.
However, while some hacktivist groups were engaging in DDoS attacks aimed at websites, one group was able to conduct a breach of the Jammu Municipal Corporation on 2 May and exfiltrate a trove of data, including personal information, tax information, and details of infrastructure in the region.
According to an intelligence official, the objective of the attack was “to destabilise public services and spread fear among the populace”.
“These tactics are consistent with state-backed cyber warfare efforts targeting strategic and sensitive zones like Jammu and Kashmir,” the official told CySecurity News.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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