[ISN] Silver Lords lead record anti-India hacking spree

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Sun Apr 29 2001 - 22:09:00 PDT

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    Forwarded by: Ravi V Prasad <r_v_pat_private>
    
    [To clear up a little confusion here, Mr. Prasad runs a small mailing
    list called c4i, dealing with electronic warfare issues in the Indian
    subcontinent.  Some of the regular readers of InfoSec News & C4I.org
    (who also forwarded the article) thought the Hindustan Times writer
    was talking about C4I.org since the article mentions Mr. Prasad
    running c4i, a website to internet security and terrorism, which
    sounds suspiciously like C4I.org.  - WK]
    
    
    http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/270401/detNAT13.asp
    
    Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
    New Delhi
    April 26, 2001
    
    THIS YEAR is set to become a record for anti-Indian hacking with 160
    websites defaced in less than four months. In comparison, 131 Indian
    websites were attacked last year. This year's tally is heading for 650
    plus. "It really doesn't look like a good year for Indian websites,"
    says India Cracked, a website that monitors anti-Indian hacking.
    
    Leading the charge is a little-known hacker group called the Silver
    Lords which has wrecked 23 Indian websites in the past six days. The
    Silver Lords place a red and black image on the sites they hack,
    leaving the words: "Silver Lords: For the Freedom of Kashmir."
    
    The Silver Lords seem to be for an independent Kashmir. But they have
    also attacked one Pakistani website, global.net.pk. While Kashmiri
    hacktivism is not unknown, it has never shown this degree of cyber
    aggression.
    
    Most hack attacks against Indian sites are by Pakistani or Islamic
    groups like GForce Pakistan or Harkat-ul-mOs. Such groups have been
    responsible for two-thirds of the anti-India attacks this year.
    
    The screen names of seven Silver Lords are known: MaDDoNa, macviz,
    ScorpionKTX, Lord Choo3s, fOul, Packeted and MiRiNdA.
    
    According to Srijit, the screen name of the person who runs the
    Singapore-based India Cracked, the group left an e-mail address
    silverlordsat_private at one attack.
    
    The Silver Lords have hacked Indian sites intermittently before, as
    well as sites in other countries, but never showed any political
    leanings. MaDDoNa, in a recent solo attack on the Guru Nanak Dev
    University site, said nothing about Kashmir and even left a note on
    how to repair the site.
    
    Srijit, analyzing previous attacks by ScorpionKTX, says he "seems to
    be connected to Brazil." This is of interest, says Ravi V. Prasad, who
    runs c4i, a website to internet security and terrorism, because Brazil
    is a centre for mercenary hackers. They are recruited over the
    internet by governments and political groups to attack specific sites.
    
    This makes it likely the Silver Lords were recruited, probably three
    months ago, to attack India-related websites by Kashmiri activists or
    Pakistani agencies. "They may have been asked to attack a few
    Pakistani sites to make it seem they were Kashmiri," said one expert.
    This would explain their sudden interest in Kashmir and focus on
    Indian sites.
    
    Pakistani hacker groups sprang up after the Pokhran II tests and after
    Western hackers stole nuclear test data from the BARC. GForce was the
    first such group. The newest group is the World's Fantabulous
    Defacers.
    
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