Operation Sindoor: As India hit Pakistan, 6 nations fired cyber missiles

HYDERABAD: It's not just the country's western border that took heavy enemy fire during Operation Sindoor . India was attacked in cyberspace, too, by state-backed hackers and hacktivists from Pakistan, Turkiye, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia, with backing from China, according to cybersecurity experts.

Apart from defence PSUs and their MSME vendors, critical infrastructure like ports, airports, power grids, transportation services like Indian Railways and airlines, telecom players like BSNL, fintech platforms like UPI, digital wallets, stock exchanges, and major Indian conglomerates with investments in infrastructure too came under attack, sources said. The attempt was to both embarrass India and also extract sensitive information about its defence systems, including its missiles, they said.

According to Interpol trainer and cyber forensic expert Pendyala Krishna Shastry, the attacks were part of a broader campaign waged by Pakistani actors against Indian digital assets. These groups reportedly deployed malware, conducted phishing attacks, and launched denial-of-service operations targeting critical sectors such as finance, telecom, energy, and public services.

Zone-H, a website that tracks defacements, reported incidents involving Indian govt domains. The website of National Institute of Water Sports (niws.nic.in) was claimed to have been defaced. Another, nationaltrust.nic.in, also experienced a breach, but was restored later.

CCL website restored:

The Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) website suffered a major technical glitch on Tuesday after a message appeared from one Mr Habib 404. Pakistani cyber force that said, "You thought you were safe, but we are here." Officials shied away from the Pakistan cyberattack angle, reports Sanjay Sahay.

CCL's PRO Alok Gupta said, "The website has been restored and is functioning normally. There is no loss or distortion of company data. At present, we can only say that the problem was due to a technical glitch. We cannot conclude whether it was hacked or not."