Pakistan-based group allegedly hack websites of educational institutions like DU, AMU and IIT-Delhi

Websites of Delhi University (DU), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Indian Institute of Technology -Delhi and some other educational and training institutions were hacked allegedly by some Pakistan-based groups on Tuesday. The portals of DU, AMU, IIT-Delhi and IIT-BHU, when opened, did not show the usual information and were posted with messages and videos about alleged atrocities by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. The hackers, who called themselves PHC, also posted some pro-Pakistani slogans on the websites, and said: “Nothing deleted or stolen. Just here to deliver my message to Indians.” The message asked Indians if they were aware of what their soldiers were doing in Kashmir. The hacked portals also had “Pakistan zindabad” slogans. Websites of University of Kota, Army Institute of Management and Technology, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, and National Aerospace Laboratories did not open or could not be reached. When contacted, educational institutions said they were linked to Ernet India Server which hosted their websites. Afsar Khan, former Registrar and a member of AMU website management team, told IANS that the website for admissions was hosted locally and was working fine. “Ernet (Education and Research Network) India Server that hosts websites has been hacked. They are working on it and it will be restored within 3-4 hours. Our website for admissions, which is hosted locally, is working fine and we won’t face any problem on that front,” he said. DU, in its statement, said the website of the university was inaccessible from outside the campus for some time “due to some problems in the domain name servers pointing incorrectly to another site”. “The problem was detected and immediately rectified by contacting ERNET, who has provided the domain name for University of Delhi,” the statement said. IIT-Delhi spokesperson Kalyan Bhattacharjee told IANS that there was nothing wrong with their server and it was Ernet that was hacked. “Our server is intact. We are registered with the ERNET – under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. They have a DNA server and has our addresses,” he said. “It is this address location that was tampered with by some external agency,” Bhattacharjee said, adding that the ministry is investigating the matter.