The official website of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) has allegedly been taken down by Pakistani hackers. The website of Income-Tax (I-T) Department, a part of IRS, was hacked on early Saturday (6 February) and the site is still offline.
The Income-Tax Department's official website (https://www.irsofficersonline.gov.in) has been hacked by hackers claimed to be based in Pakistan. The site is offline and displays messages 'Pakistan Zindabad' and 'We are team Pak cyber attacker.' However, the Indian officials later have taken charge and left a message stating 'We'll be back soon. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we're performing some maintenance at the moment.'
The Express Tribune reports that the hacked website was acting as an official communicator between Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the I-T Department's field offices across the country. Earlier also, Indian music streaming website Gaana.com was hacked by a Pakistan-based hacker in May 2015.
The interesting point was the hacked was later offered with a job at Gaana.com. The CEO of Gaana.com asked the hacker to find if any other issue was with the site. Coming to the latest hacking, the technical team involving in maintaining the website is working on this.
The Indian Express further adds that the technical team has sent a detailed report to Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), a nodal agency for fighting against hacking and phishing. CERT-In fortifies security-related protection and security to the Indian Internet domain.
In November 2015, Indian hackers attacked Pakistan government's websites. Two India-based cyber hacking groups allegedly taken down government departments of Pakistan. Shakti Campaign and VVV believed to have attacked the Pakistani government departments' sites.
The hacked Pakistani websites included country's defense office also. However, the hacking was very basic in nature and not effective, an international cyber security expert as told The Times of India. The cyber hacking research reports reveal that some of the news agencies websites were spoofed to attract clicks.
Meanwhile, some Indian hackers too attacked Pakistani website after the recent terror attack on Pathankot Air Force Station in India. It's learnt that hackers attacked about 20 Pakistani government sites. Some hackers were trying to block profiles on social media and websites operated y terror outfits, as reported by Mail Online India.
The security audit on hacking the Indian tax department's website is being undertaken. The technical team is examining the way the online portal was hacked. They found that no sensitive or secret information was uploaded on Universal Resource Locator (URL) of IRS websites working with the I-T Department.
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