Pakistan Uses India's 'Surgical Strike' To Launch Cyber Attack: Local Media

Pakistan is launching a cyber war, using computers and virus-laden emails to ‘attack’ Indian Army.

Spoofed emails with the subject line ‘Actual Story of Surgical Strike’ are being sent by the hackers to Indian army. The phishing mail is given credibility by using the hacked email address of key office in the directorate of military intelligence.

An alert has been issued to all the units of Indian army to be careful following the increasing reports of virtual attack by army personnel in the last 10 days, The New Indian Express reported Sunday.

“The content of the email tempts users to trust the legitimacy of the message by indicating that the attached document is an official statement from Indian Army on surgical strike in PoK and subsequent response after Uri attack,” an Army Headquarters statement said.

After tracing the spoofed email, the Army’s Cyber Group established that the malicious file’s IP address was connected to a server in Germany, which is fake.

“This malware is designed to steal user data and credentials. It also allows the hackers to take remote control of the targeted machine (computer),” an Army Cyber Group alert said.

Many cyber attacks have been carried out by Pakistan since September 29 pre-dawn strike by Indian commandos of the Special Forces. In past 10 days, at least 50 IT companies have come under attack from hackers of the neighboring country.

On October 3, the National Green Tribunal’s website was attacked by a group of Pakistani hackers who posted a message mocking India over the surgical strikes.

Few months ago, China’s Western Headquarters, which overseas India, launched a cyber attack on the Indian Army, raising alarms bells.

Recently, a similar cyber attack was launched in the name of the Seventh Central Pay Commission malware, a topic of interest among defence and government officials.

In 2013, computer systems of the Defence Research and Development Organisation were breached by Chinese hackers.