Followers

30 November 2009

RAAF website hacked over attacks on Indian students




July 16, 2009 05:30pm


A HACKER has broken into the RAAF's website, leaving a message warning the Australian Government to halt racist attacks against Indian students.
The hacker identified himself as Atul Dwivedi, saying that unless the Government complied "I will pawn all your cyber properties like this one".
The incident follows a series of attacks on Indian students in Australia, attracting global media coverage and strong condemnation from within India.
A defence spokesman confirmed the break-in took place some time in the period July 13-14, forcing it to take the entire RAAF website offline for some seven to eight hours. It was replaced with a message saying the site was unavailable because of technical difficulties. The site has now been restored.
Defence said the message left on the site read: "This site hacked by Atul Dwivedi. Long live India. This is a warning message to Australian govt. Immediately take all measures to stop racist attacks against Indian students in Australia else I will pwn all your cyber properties like this one. Jai Hind".
A Defence spokesman said the RAAF website was not used to conduct official air force business and all information on the site was there for public consumption.
No sensitive information had been stolen.
He said the air force intranet website was a secure site which had not been penetrated.
"No sensitive information was compromised as the air force internet website is hosted on an external server and, as such, does not hold any sensitive information," the spokesman said.
As the incident is under active investigation it is inappropriate to discuss the technical aspects of the incident, he said.
The spokesman said the RAAF would evaluate any further measures required to protect its internet website from intrusions.


No comments: