Indian group suspected of hacking business servers

Businesses have been locked out of their computer networks with servers encrypted and encoded, making it impossible for employees to do their work, an ABC report said, adding they were told this would happen every day until attacks on Indians in Melbourne come to an end. The cost of lost business is estimated at over USD 1,00,000 in some cases.

"This is a group for those who are hacking as their prime goal to prove themselves amongst the world. I hate them who hack for fun. Be serious about it," a post on Hackers Union website said. A number of members are freely identified on the site, some with photographs and email addresses.

The Victoria Police e-crimes squad is investigating the alleged hacking attacks but says it cannot comment at this stage. University of Melbourne digital forensic specialist Andrew Lonie said hacking is becoming an increasingly common form of protest.

"Any two countries that are having a spat at the moment, I guess there's a sort of a groundswell of people who think it's the worst thing that's ever happened and they're using the internet as a forum for that," Lonie said, adding hacking group culture is very similar to gang culture.

"As a group the hackers tend to take themselves fairly seriously and pretty much all of them would say, you know, we're the best. We're the ones who are the serious ones and everyone else is just playing around," he said.

Reacting to the latest retaliation by the hackers, Federation of Indian Students' Association spokesperson Gautam Gupta said it was the first time he has heard about online attacks.

"I think it is very unfortunate that now the innocent Australian businesses are paying the price for the unsafe streets of Melbourne". "I will tell to everyone who is doing anything illegal or violent in any age group and of any nationality that violence of any sort is unacceptable and must be avoided at any cost, whether the violence is online or offline," Gupta added.