Andhra Government Websites Hacked

As many as 27 websites of various departments of Andhra Pradesh were hacked, exposing the chinks in the state’s cyber security. The cyber criminals broke into one of the government servers and hacked the websites.

The websites which were hacked include those of departments of commercial taxes, general administration department, horticulture, factories, gazette notifications and government orders.

The officials said the hackers did not deface the pages or steal the information but only added additional pages with their message.

State Information Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said there was no loss of data. He told reporters that one of the 50 government servers was hacked and 27 websites supported by the server were affected.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

The government denied reports that the data relating to the state budget was stolen. The officials said none of the websites had data relating to 2012-13 budget, which is to be presented in the state legislature Friday.

Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy denied that the website of finance department was hacked. He denied that the budget was leaked. The minister said the budget would be posted on the website only after it was presented in the budget.

The IT minister said cyber crime branch of the police and Indian Computer Emergency Response team were informed about the hacking.

After the chief secretary lodged a complaint, the officials of cyber crime branch visited the state secretariat and began probe into the hacking.

Some Bangladeshi hacking groups are suspected to be behind the incident.

Two days ago Black HAT Hackers, a Bangladesh based group, hacked into several Indian websites including that of Indian Border Security Force. The group said their action was in response to the killings by BSF personnel in the border.