Indo Pak Cyber deal holds
By Shalini Singh

A few years ago, Indian and Pakistani hacker groups had launched an online war against each other.  Every day, techies from both countries used to logon and bring down or deface websites in each others countries.  By all accounts, the Indian and Pakistani Governments were not involved and this was the work of individuals and hacker groups.

Then on Nov 30, 2008 a statement was published in some blogs that the Indian and Pakistani hackers had made peace and decided not to attack each other.  In a joint statement to Chowrangi.com, PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army), Zombie_ksa (PAKbugs) and ICW (Indian Cyber Warriors and Hindu Militant Group) said they had made peace. (Full story at end of this article).

The cross border hacker peace treaty held well over the last few years.  Then the dynamics changed in early July, 2010 when the Pakistani Government arrested most members of the high profile Pakistani hacking group PAKbugs.  The Pakistan Government claims that they clamped down on PAKbugs due to complaints from within their own country.  Even as the Pakistan Government arrested PAKbugs, about 130 Pakistani sites were hacked.

Could Indian techies be mistakenly blamed for the hacking of 130 Pakistani sites?  No one was sure but the situation had all the ingredients of suspicion and misunderstanding and could blow up into another hacker war on the internet.

But if you needed more proof that there are many people in both Pakistan and India who want peace and good neighbourly relations, it came in the form of a statement by powerful Pakistani hacking collective PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army).  They told propakistani

“
“Message from Pakistan Cyber Army on arrest of Pakbugs Members

If anyone has doubt that we are not the one who defaced ONGC then get a life first. If people have forgotten, then we are the same guys who defaced ONGC in response to the attack on OGRA. After which we did a peace deal with the groups involved on both sides of borders including “Pakbugs” and “ICW” but kids didn’t keep their promise and got arrested.

We told PakBugs many (many, many, many) times to not to deface/destroy Pakistani websites and infrastructure. We told them to take FIA and NR3C seriously – as these agencies are not bunch of NOOBS, we had warned Pakbugs that you people don’t know about the power and the resources that NR3C has got but they gave a damn to our words and ended up in their custody.

I feel sad about the kids but… it happened due to their carelessness and childish attitude, which eventually landed them in the jail.

If you people are upcoming hackers and don’t know about Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance then go and read it on NR3C website. I fear that Pakbugs would have a jail of 7 years if they got trialed and if FIA bail them out with some punishment they should thank Allah and concentrate on their studies.

We always told Jawad (HUMZA) and other kids about the consequences that they may face if arrested. [Jawad correct me if I am wrong].

Request to FIA/NR3C

“It is our humble request to FIA (NR3C) authorities to consider the case realistically and don’t give the kids the capital punishment as they are kids and can improve if given a chance. If they get the capital punishment as mentioned in Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance, then their future will be ruined. Sir, these are our kids and our force if given a direction“

Message for upcoming Hackers

Our message to upcoming hackers or people who are interested in this field is that there is nothing bad to have the knowledge of hacking or hacking techniques, what’s bad is the usage of such knowledge and skill against our own country, national and international organizations or departments – that may cause damage to our country and its repute in the world.  Don’t push your efforts to get famous. The fame will come with time.

Some of you kids out there think that organizations in the west give opportunities to the hackers. If that’s the case then you are living in a heaven of fools.

Don’t believe in such stories that hackers will have a good future. The person who has a criminal record cannot fly from the country or he can’t enter into a country legally – go and ask your elders about it.

Message for Indian Hackers

If Indian hackers think that the game is over then read our message once again “Don’t mess with Pakistan else you will lose both your Name and this Game”. If you think that “Pakbugs” got arrested and you have a chance to play then give it a second thought.

Regards,

Pakistan Zindabad,
We are still awake for our country.
Haroon aka D45H & Hamza aka r4yd3n
Pakistan Cyber Army”
“

This public statement by the Pakistan Cyber Army has gone a long way in explaining what is really happening in Pakistan. By not blaming Indian hackers for the attack on the 130 Pakistani websites, it also ensures that the peace pact between Pakistan and Indian hackers is not violated.

(Techgoss had published the following on July 9, 2010)

Pak arrests hacking group
By Shalini Singh

A few years ago, Indian and Pakistani hacker groups had launched an online war against each other.  Every day, techies from both countries used to logon and bring down or deface websites in each others countries.  By all accounts, the Indian and Pakistani Governments were not involved and this was the work of individuals and hacker groups.

Then on Nov 30, 2008 a statement was published in some blogs that the Indian and Pakistani hackers had made peace and decided not to attack each other.  In a joint statement to Chowrangi.com, PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army),  Zombie_ksa (PAKbugs) and ICW (Indian Cyber Warriors and Hindu Militant Group) said they had made peace as “these groups realized that there is no use of such defacements and they should be instead involved in constructive work. Apart from that, poor defaced organizations suffer from these activities.”  They even apologized for the trouble and inconvenience caused to all.

For the last two years, after the peace pact, such organized cyber attacks had become a thing of the past.

Hacker collective PAKbugs has a national profile in their country and even has a fan following due to their cyber attacks on Pakistan’s enemies.

Now, the Pakistan Government has arrested most of the PAKbugs group.  Propakistani (via AFP) is  reporting

“
Pakistani authorities said Thursday they had traced a gang of hackers and arrested five suspects involved in defacing thousands of domestic and international websites and online fraud.

The "internationally-known hackers" have been picked up in an operation spanning the country over the past few weeks, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) senior officer Mian Idrees told AFP.

"We have unearthed notorious hackers group 'Pakbugs' and arrested five members of this group," he said.

Authorities seized computers and other equipment involved in various cyber crimes, he said.
“

(Techgoss had published the following on May 11, 2009)

PAKbugs hack Google
By Shalini Singh

Over the last few years, Indian and Pakistani hackers have made concentrated, well organized attempts to attack each other.  Late last year, Indian hacking group HMG (Hindu Militant Group) corrupted the website of the Pakistani Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority.  Soon, Pakistani hackers defaced our ONGC website.  And so it went on.  Tit for tat and sometimes more.

Then on Nov 30, 2008 a statement was published in some blogs that the Indian and Pakistani hackers had made peace and decided not to attack each other.  In a joint statement to Chowrangi.com,  PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army),  Zombie_ksa (PAKbugs) and ICW (Indian Cyber Warriors and Hindu Militant Group) said they had made peace as “these groups realized that there is no use of such defacements and they should be instead involved in constructive work. Apart from that, poor defaced organizations suffer from these activities.”  They even apologized for the trouble and inconvenience caused to all.

Since this peace deal between the hackers of arch rivals India and Pakistan, there has been a huge drop in the attacks on civilian websites in both countries.

On Saturday,  PAKbugs hacked into a Moroccan Government site which routes internet traffic around the country.  Anyone who searched for Google Morocco (google.co.ma) was diverted to a web page trumpeting the hacking.

Google scrambled to take remedial action and for some time diverted all queries to Google Morocco to Google USA.

According to Pakistani blogs, PAKbugs is a Saudi Arabia based collective of hackers most of whom are from Pakistan and neighboring countries.

Most Pakistani blogs and commentators urged the hackers to use their skills to secure Pakistan rather than hack other websites. Omer Farooq commented that “these hackers should develop anti-virus programs and make Pakistan proud rather than become the Talibans of the Internet”.  One Pakistani commentator cheekily requested their hackers to leave Google alone and instead try to hack right wing news media organization Fox News.