Al Qaeda allegedly hacks Indian Railways, raises concerns about digital India’s web security

On Tuesday, a group claiming to be Al Qaeda hacked into a microsite of the Indian Railways, the world’s fourth largest railway network, in the first instance of the group attacking a government website in the country.

The terrorist organization left messages addressed to Indian Muslims, local media reported.

In the message, people were encouraged to participate in jihad and help defeat the United States and its allies.

And it’s not just that. Though this is the first time this group struck out at an Indian government site, this list from BGR shows the many instances where different government websites have been hacked into by various other groups.

Yes, it’s scary. But more than that, it raises questions about cyber security in India, a country that has been hard-selling its digital vision under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.

The Indian railways is up for some major revamping as the government gets on with its modernization drive, and a huge part of that will be the digitization of its old systems.

But with digitization comes the threat of hacks like today’s, building pressure on the government to make cybersecurity more a part of the mainstream conversation, and implement strict laws on all sectors.

Because the threats are not limited to government websites.

“It’s critical that India improve its cybersecurity, yet website defacements like this one are largely a distraction from more significant shortcomings lurking beneath the surface… The far more serious threats arise when governments, businesses and critical infrastructure are compromised by sophisticated attackers who do not want to be detected,” Bryce Boland, the Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific at cybersecurity firm FireEye told Tech In Asia.

“In the first half of 2015, 38 percent of the Indian organizations we observed were hit by advanced attacks like this. India’s exposure to these attacks was almost double the global average of 20 percent. The public has reason to be anxious about cybersecurity, but limited attacks like this one needn’t be the reason.”

The number of cyber crimes in India was seen touching 300,000 in 2015, almost double the level of 2014, according to an ASSOCHAM-Mahindra SSG study conducted last year.

A PWC study of 2014 said the average number of security incidents detected in each of the 500 organisations they surveyed in 2013 stood at about 135 per organization.