Pakistan Hackers Attack 50 IT Companies In Hyderabad After Surgical Strikes

Hyderabad: Nearly 50 IT companies have fallen prey to cyber attacks inflicted by Pakistan based hackers over the past 10 days, said Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) on Thursday.

The cyber attack in the city comes days after Pakistani hackers claimed hacking over 7,000 Indian websites as revenge against India for carrying out surgical strikes.

Pakistani hackers used servers in Turkey, Somalia and Saudi Arabia to launch attacks against companies, said Cyber Security Forum officials. Information was stolen through ransomware and the hackers demanded bitcoins for handing back the decryption keys.

Zaki Qureshey

While the amount demanded usually depends on the importance of the information that hackers get hold of, it is not necessary that the decryption keys will be returned even after paying the amount

Explaining about the modus operandi officials said that every five minutes the proxy servers were changed but somehow the ethical hackers team managed to nail the location of the actual attackers through IP addresses, the port used and the network node.

“A few of these attacks have been sorted out although majority are still being tackled,” said Devraj Wodeyar, head, Cyber Security Forum under the Society of Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC).

Devraj also said that 1 lakh bitcoins were asked to pay by one of the big companies whose entire data was locked out by hackers.

"While the amount demanded usually depends on the importance of the information that hackers get hold of, it is not necessary that the decryption keys will be returned even after paying the amount,” said Zaki Qureshey , cyber security expert and founder of cyber security academy E2 Labs Information Security Private Limited.

2,500 IT companies including 1,300 big companies registered with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) are in the Cyberabad area along the western part of the Hyderabad. These companies cater to businesses across the globe, but bulk of its clients are in the US and Europe.

Meanwhile, a `Ransomware Remediation Plan' is being drafted by SCSC as to what can be done post a ransomware attack.