TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: After a nearly five day virtual battle, the Information Technology (IT) Cell of Goa government has managed to restore the 15 government department websites, which were shut after unidentified hackers penetrated and defaced them last weekend.
IT Director Nilesh Faldesai confirmed that the websites have been restored with added anti-hacking protection, while restoring the websites of three departments – Accounts, Tourism and Fisheries will take a little more time.
“All data have been restored with additional security protection so that any further cyber attack is thwarted. The sites of three departments will be operational soon,” he told Herald.
However, the State agencies are still at sea in nailing the identity or location of the hackers. State IT Corporation Chairman Subhash Faldesai conceded that tracking down the hackers is a challenging task.
“It’s my personal opinion that it is very difficult to trace the hackers. But this doesn’t mean we have given up,” he told Herald. In the same breath he said there is an urgent need to identify whether the pro-Pakistan message on the front page was a threat by terrorists or just a mischief.
“A hacker can penetrate the websites sitting anywhere in the world. Our efforts are on to identify the criminal minds and for this, we have sought the assistance of other experts,” he added.
The state agencies are investigating the portal whose security was first hacked that gave access to all websites. A senior IT expert said since all websites are posted on single server, the hackers could gain access to several websites at one time.
The corporation chairman said intention with which the websites were brought down will be probed.
“If we want, the websites can be restored in one day but we don’t want to compromise on security. We are introducing additional security measures to prevent further cyber attacks,” Faldesai told Herald responding to a question on the delay.
He said the government has a back-up of the data of all departments. “There is nothing to panic. The hackers couldn’t get through the database except that some web pages were defaced. We have a back-up,” he assured.
