We all are very well-known about the border dispute that has been going on between Nepal and India. The dispute is regarding the Kalapani-Lipulekh and Limphudhara area on the far western side of Nepal. And certainly, this has been a highlight of the conversation almost everywhere, as there are numerous meetings, conversations and conflicts going on about the very topic.
Also, this is a very sensitive topic that involves the matter of land which plays a very sentimental role to all the citizens. And because of the very reason, there has been a cyber war going on between the IT groups of India and Nepal. Hackers of both the sides have been anonymously leaking the data, taking over the legal website, and marking the banner that states Back off Nepal with Indian Flag and Backs off India with Nepali flag on the websites.
Now, to start with let’s just address that cyber war is a very obtuse way of demonstrating dominance as this is a diplomatic issue and can be only solved with humane communication between the leaders of both the side. Hackers are trying to show their dominance by intruding into people’s privacy. This kind of activity should not be encouraged in any way.
With that being said, since we know why the cyber-war is taking place so obnoxiously, let’s get into the details as to where and how it all began;
How did it start?
It all started with the Indian hacking group “Indian cyber troops” who hacked the Nepali website at first and left a message that stated that Nepal must change their political map or else they will cause more harm through cyber attacking.
The website hacked by the Indian cyber troops is the Nepali government website Botanical Research Center, Bank. The hackers “Indian Cyber Troops” later on claimed the responsibility for the attack and on their Facebook page, stating it could’ve even vandalized the main site, but chose not to do so.
Adding up, they also hinted that the reason for the overall cybercrime was the border dispute between India and Nepal, and contemplated a message for Nepal to “fix its map immediately.” They also claimed to hack four other Nepali government websites in a single day and declared to have access to the Ministry of Home Affairs as well.
In retribution to this cyber activity, ‘SATAN Cyber God’ who is a Nepali hacker disclosed the fabric’s API Key of ABP News. Then it didn’t just stop there and soon after that an anonymous Nepal-based hacker who went by the name “alias Omsec5” allegedly hacked HDFC Bank’s data and leaked over 2,000 Aadhar card details of Indian nationals.
As a response to that the hacking team of India “ICREW Hackers” went in to hack the Nepal Consular website with the same cryptic message on the website stating Nepal to back off and also went to tweet that it’s their turn.
The Indian hackers further went on to provoked SATAN by stating that leaking the API key is a very simple task. Then they even published a whole video showing how it’s done as well. More to that a user naming from GHO57_5P3C706 also breached Nepal consular’s government website and went on to continue the cyber dispute.
Later on, we also came to know that both the rivalry hacking groups did try to rest the matter and tried talking to leave all the grudges to past via Facebook. The group’s Facebook post dated May 22 stated: “We’ve talked to Nepali hackers and now we are going to stop attacks. We are brothers. Establish peace,” ending with #JaiHind and #Jai_Nepal.
It went on and on:
Everything started to vandalize when the Nepali hacker SATAN posted this: “We were gonna stop but some kids again started to deface our sites! We can’t just sit back and watch. This is just a demo! #BackOffIndia.”
The mentioned tweet from SATAN’s has aggravated the situation and “Indian Cyber Troops” further went on taking it as a severe offense and then further threatened a possible all-out war from many hacking groups based in India with a message that reads “This will lead to a huge loss,” reads the Troops’ post. Also, the other hackers that have been involved in the data breach and cyberwar are GH057_5P3C706 from the Indian side and Bramha from the Nepali side. These hackers have been actively involved in this whole cyberwar as well and committed data theft while as exposed the breached information as well.
Thus, so far the assaults committed by the hackers of two nations haven’t yet focused on attacking systems directly but the damage is predictable. In the most Recently case, Nepal National Library’s (NNL) website was also hacked and mutilated by a hacker that went with the name “alias Shamaroosh”. This went down after SATAN allegedly hacked 4 websites. Both the hacker groups of India might be joining forces to outrage a cyber War in Nepal and this does no good since both sides don’t seem to stop this any time soon.
SATAN hacked the data of BSNL cooperate and Indian education Institutions all the data and threatened to leak the data as a threat. And then, recently an Indian hacker yet again took down the website of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and placed an Indian flag along with a message on its home page. This situation has been getting uglier every single day and the government doesn’t seem to care about this problem while this is a sensitive case and should be addressed as soon as possible.
Moreover, there are some new hacking that went down, and looking at this state it doesn’t seem like the cyberwar will end anytime soon. Although, both the team have now tweeted to stop the hacking rivalry and stated that they respect both countries. They have also said that if any other data breach takes place then this might get uglier. So, the overall scenario is very unpredictable.
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Conclusion:
In conclusion, as we are already going through a very unpredictable pandemic, further extending or starting this kind of a cyberwar might just jeopardize many things. While on a more contemplated point of view this is still a very unethical thing to do and will certainly not have a merry ending. However, as for now, SATAN’s account is non-existent and in his last tweet, he mentioned everything has been settled between the hackers of both sides.
Also, this whole conflict has and will certainly very much affect the well being of innocent lives whose data have been breached without their knowledge. This kind of a war is humanly not acceptable so this is only to be rested in peace once and for all. As it does it will be for the betterment of everyone. We are different nations who respect each other’s opinions and sovereignty. And if by any mean conflict is o be raised then the only best way is to have a table talk and solve the issue together. This should be very much known by everyone to sustain a peaceful environment.
Let us know what you think about the whole Cyber War situation in the comment section down below. And make sure to drop your opinion about the whole ongoing situation.
