August marks Independence Day celebrations in India and Pakistan, as they were partitioned into two independent nations in 1947. While the story of their shared roots and divergent paths after all these years merits exploration in another writeup, their National/Independence days have especially witnessed unprovoked cross-border firings among militaries of both nations across their shared border, a fact that hacktivists have recently used as an opportunity to target the digital infrastructures of both countries.
Traditionally, these cyberattacks range from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, website defacements, and exaggerated postings of open-source data to gain notoriety and tarnish organizations’ reputations. But over the years, Hacktivists have refined their approach with the use of advanced botnet tools and pose a significant threat.
Like in previous years, Cyble Vision started picking up indicators of this digital flag-waving among hacktivist groups at midnight on August 14. These groups have so far claimed to have targeted over 100 websites in independent attacks.
- Team Azrael–Angel Of Death
- Team insane Pakistan
- SILENT CYBER FORCE
- Moroccan Soldiers
- Moroccan Black Cyber Army
- THE ANONYMOUS BANGLADESH
Figure 1: Excerpt from Cyble Vision highlighting the hacktivism incidents targeting India
The infamous pro-Pakistan hacktivists group, Team Insane Pakistan, has even gone ahead to announce an ‘#OpIndia’ campaign to target Indian entities.
Figure 2: Announcement of OpIndia campaign by Team Insane Pakistan
While another hacktivist group joining the initial foray is the pro-Palestinian hacktivist group Team Azrael, ‘Angel of Death’ claimed to have targeted the mail server of a department under the State Government of Rajasthan by posting a video of the compromised email panel and illicitly sending phishing email.
Figure 3: An Indian state government department targeted by Team Azrael
Similarly, they posted several other videos targeting local news channels in the state of Punjab, a government department of the Government of Tamil Nadu, and documents pertaining to a prominent Indian public sector unit in defense production.
Figure 4: Screenshots of videos posted by Team Azrael
The hacktivist group SILENT CYBER FORCE claimed to DDoS 25 Indian sites and leaked the username and password of one of the websites for other cyber actors to illicitly access them.
Figure 5: Several Indian websites targeted by SILENT CYBER FORCE
Other hacktivist groups like Moroccan Soldiers and Moroccan Black Cyber Army posted hate posts claiming to deface several Indian websites of Education institutes, Travel portals, and Entertainment websites.
Figure 6: Several Indian websites defaced by hacktivists
A pro-Bangladeshi hacktivist group, ‘THE ANONYMOUS BANGLADESH’, targeted an Indian Law Association and provided illicit backdoor shell access with modified credentials for other attackers to access the compromised web panel.
Figure 7: Excerpt of the post from the Telegram channel of The Anonymous Bangladesh
The natural response in the past to these acts of hacktivism by Islamist or anti-Indian actors will draw ire and reprisal from countering hacktivist groups sympathizing with Israel and India. Anonymous Israel, a pro-Israeli group breaking their silence and inactivity of more than a year since April 2023, has announced to launch of a retaliatory campaign called ‘#PAYBACK 2024’ in collaboration with pro-Indian hacktivists to target entities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Palestine.
Figure 8: Announcement of retaliatory campaign ‘PAYBACK 2024’ by pro-Israeli hacktivist groups
