In another cyberattack on a government website, hackers successfully took over the website of the Ministry of Aviation not once but twice.
According to details, the ministry’s website was briefly hacked, displaying a message in a foreign language, before being restored by the IT department.
However, the hackers weren’t done yet as they returned for a second attack on the website and managed to exploit vulnerabilities once again. Later, the IT department regained access to the website.
The cyberattacks on the Ministry of Aviation’s website have raised serious concerns about the overall cybersecurity measures in place. At the moment, there is no official word about the hacking.
This isn’t the first time that a government website has been hacked. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s website experienced a similar breach.
The hackers had also displayed a message, stating “Our spring sale has started.”
Furthermore, the official website of Pakistan Railways has also fallen victim to cyber-attacks various times in the past, highlighting a recurring issue with cybersecurity in government institutions.
NTC’s Clarification:
The National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) has responded to the reports of Aviation Ministry’s website hacking. An official of the NTC, Faisal Imtiaz, denied the media reports, stating that there was no breach in the Aviation Ministry’s website security.
The official clarified that the website hasn’t been hacked, in fact, they’ve added a captcha which news websites wrongly interpreted as being hacked by a foreign hacking group.
He added that “the website employs multilayer security. The captcha appears to differentiate between a bot and a human. That’s the standard security procedure. Users received a captcha with Chinese text which meant “Your computer or network may be sending an automatic access request. To continue access, please enter the following letters.”
