Analysis of information collected by CERT-In, a government agency which monitors and responds to computer security incidents in the country, has revealed that a total of 1981 Indian websites were defaced in the first three months of 2010.

While 570 websites were defaced in January 2010, 510 websites were defaced in February 2010. This number peaked to 901 websites in March 2010. Website defacements usually involve hackers substituting the original page of a website by a page that has a message conveying a specific agenda.

Out of the 1981 Indian websites defaced, 1263 belonged to the domain name .in, while 587 belonged to the domain .com. “These statistics represent just the tip of the iceberg, as hacking today has gone beyond mere defacing to malware injection and stealing of data. This total does not represent the total number of hacking incidents – as most of them go unreported,” says KK Mookhey, Principal Consultant and Founder, Network Intelligence India.

Mookhey believes that most of the website defacements are done either by script kiddies or by hackers who have a specific agenda. “The real hackers are after information, and they would never bring attention to themselves by defacing websites,” explains Mookhey.

Source :  CERT-In

For Indian organizations, these statistics should serve as a wake up call. The script kiddies of today are testing out their attacks by conducting test runs such as website defacements. Tomorrow, as these script kiddies learn how to cover their tracks effectively, they will morph into the real hackers of tomorrow, who are well equipped to steal information discreetly. 

The volume of attacks is likely to increase substantially if one looks at past trends. For example, in the first three months of last year (2009), there were only 384 website defacements which were reported. The first three months of this year has seen 1981 website defacements – a growth of over 500 percent, when compared to last year.