New Delhi: Two hacker groups from Malaysia and Indonesia initiated a cyber war against India in the aftermath of BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s controversial comments on Prophet Muhammad, the police have said.
Ahmedabad Police’s Cyber Crime department said these groups were DragonForce Malaysia and Hacktivist Indonesia.
Deputy Commissioner Amit Vasava said these groups appealed to Muslim hackers across the world to join them in their “mission”.
Vasava said over 2,000 websites were hacked, adding that the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime has written to the Malaysian and Indonesian governments, as well as the Interpol, to issue lookout notices for both groups.
In the aftermath of Nupur Sharma incident, 2 hacker groups namely 'Dragon force Malaysia' & 'Hacktivist Indonesia' initiated a cyber war against India. They also appealed to Muslim hackers from across the world for the same: Amit Vasava, DCP, Cyber Crime, Ahmedabad
— ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2022
Nupur Sharma’s controversial remarks during a television debate in May had precipitated domestic and international outrage, leaving India to defend its policies before Muslim nations.
Sharma was suspended as the party’s spokesperson.
Reports in mid-June said DragonForce had launched an attack called OpsPatuk or “strike back” against India.
On 10 June, Bengaluru-based cyber security firm CloudSEK discovered a tweet posted by DragonForce, calling for attacks on government websites.
To enable others to launch attacks, the group shared Indian users’ social media credentials, particularly Facebook access, usernames and passwords.
DragonForce Malaysia is apparently a pro-Palestine hacktivist group based in the country.
Before #OpsPatuk, DragonForce Malaysia targetted organisations and citizens across Israel with #OpsBedil, #OpsBedilReloaded and #OpsRWM (Raids Without Mercy).