Indian hackers duel Pakistanis

CALCUTTA — As the Indian and Pakistani governments seek to ease tensions between the two countries, computer-hacking clubs on both sides of the border, with names such as “Spy” and “Snakes,” are engaged in a cyber-war with attacks and counterattacks on official Web sites.

Indian Spy, a hacker claiming to represent Indian Hackers Club (IHC), said this week his group defaced several Pakistani sites and posted messages therein challenging and ridiculing pro-Pakistan hackers who had been targeting Indian Web sites.

On one defaced Pakistani site, Indian Snakes, considered the most active Indian hacker group, recently threatened to unleash Yaha-Q virus — the latest in its Yaha series — again if Pakistani hackers did not cease attacks on Indian sites.

Between March and May, the group paralyzed Pakistani government sites for five weeks with Yaha-series viruses.

Other pro-Indian hacker groups that have claimed attacks on Pakistani sites include Nirvana and Emperor. Some hackers pursue their activities alone. Experts identified Roxx of Calcutta and Cobra of Thiruvananthapuram as the “star hackers” in the Indian Snakes. The group comprises about six hackers from across the country.

A Bangalore-based hacker said these Web skirmishes would soon give way to an all-out computer-virus war. His group has taken responsibility for unleashing an unnamed virus earlier this year that immobilized about 200 Pakistani Web sites in two days, erasing files from the hard disks of more than 3,000 computers.

“We have the capability to program viruses that can destroy [Pakistani] servers, networks and e-mail services,” the hacker said on the condition of anonymity.

Another hacker, who called himself Xtremist, said threats and counterthreats by Indian and Pakistani hackers are expected to intensify in the coming months.

According to some Indian experts, the pro-Pakistan hackers have been more active than their foes. While Indian hackers have been lying low since the Yaha-Q attack in March, Pakistanis have been wreaking havoc on Indian sites, Pakistani and Indian Internet security experts say.

So far this year, 114 Pakistani sites have been hacked by pro-India operators while Pakistani groups have hacked or defaced as many as 766 Indian sites — 208 in June alone. Last year, 288 Indian sites were hacked.

“For every Pakistani site defaced by Indian hackers, the Pakistanis hack into 10 Indian sites. There is a constant game of upmanship happening online,” said Anubhab Kalia of New Delhi’s flawfinder.com, a service monitoring attacks on Indian sites.

According to Vasant Valavan, a Madras-based Internet security expert, the Indian Snakes’ March attack with Yaha proved devastating for Pakistan.

Several Pakistani government sites, Internet-service providers and the Karachi Stock Exchange were so severely damaged they had to seek help from Western experts to restore and safeguard those sites, he said.

“This provoked the Pakistanis, and right now, spearheaded by “Federal Bureau of Hackers” (FBH), they have embarked on a never-seen-before kill, targeting Indian sites at random,” Mr. Valavan said.

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