<p>Initial inquiries by cyber investigators in India have zeroed in on two Pakistan-based internet groups — Muslims Liberation Army and Pak Cyber Pyrates — for circulating doctored hate messages of Assam violence through social media. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Interestingly, the footprints of these two groups were visible even when a number of government and other websites had recently come under the attack by the hackers.<br /><br />Of about 100 government websites defaced by the hackers recently, the name of professional hackers, Pak Cyber Pyrates, had prominently surfaced in the investigations carried out by the intelligence agencies tasked to launch and counter cyber war. The hackers had also claimed credit through Facebook and their dedicated website, government sources aware of the probe said.<br /><br />Other than these two, three other sites, including Jamat-e-Islami and Yemtv.com, have come under the survelliance of a detailed probe the agencies are carrying out here to get to the bottom of organised conspiracy to unleash unrest through provocative videos, text and SMSes after the clash between Muslims and Bodos in Assam.<br /><br />The government has also found that the IP addresses of two sites was traced to Saudi Arabia. The investigation is complex as cyber miscreants often mask their IP address by using proxy servers that can have a thick layer of about 20 fake URLs. For example, on the face of it, the IP address will falsify its location.<br /><br />So far, the government has marked 310 websites for blocking, to check the spread of violent messages which have morphed images lifted from Myanmar and Bhutan. Of them, 93 are still to be blocked. The government is also finding it difficult to block some of these websites.<br /><br />The government’s failure to contain the Assam ethnic violence on the ground and in the cyber world is palpable and identical. Sources said that though the hate messages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter started way back on July 13 as their probe shows, the government took too much time to patrol the e-world to identify and take action against the culprits. It is virtually the same story displayed by the state as well as the Centre to contain violence and its aftermath which resulted in people of north-east fleeing back to Guwahati from other parts of the country, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.<br /><br />The Ministry of Home Affairs is in touch with the social networking sites Google, Twitter and Facebook, seeking their help to investigate the matter. It is also considering the possibility of writing to the main offices of Google and Facebook in the US, seeking their help in tracking down individual URLs to unravel the cyber conspiracy.<br /></p>
<p>Initial inquiries by cyber investigators in India have zeroed in on two Pakistan-based internet groups — Muslims Liberation Army and Pak Cyber Pyrates — for circulating doctored hate messages of Assam violence through social media. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Interestingly, the footprints of these two groups were visible even when a number of government and other websites had recently come under the attack by the hackers.<br /><br />Of about 100 government websites defaced by the hackers recently, the name of professional hackers, Pak Cyber Pyrates, had prominently surfaced in the investigations carried out by the intelligence agencies tasked to launch and counter cyber war. The hackers had also claimed credit through Facebook and their dedicated website, government sources aware of the probe said.<br /><br />Other than these two, three other sites, including Jamat-e-Islami and Yemtv.com, have come under the survelliance of a detailed probe the agencies are carrying out here to get to the bottom of organised conspiracy to unleash unrest through provocative videos, text and SMSes after the clash between Muslims and Bodos in Assam.<br /><br />The government has also found that the IP addresses of two sites was traced to Saudi Arabia. The investigation is complex as cyber miscreants often mask their IP address by using proxy servers that can have a thick layer of about 20 fake URLs. For example, on the face of it, the IP address will falsify its location.<br /><br />So far, the government has marked 310 websites for blocking, to check the spread of violent messages which have morphed images lifted from Myanmar and Bhutan. Of them, 93 are still to be blocked. The government is also finding it difficult to block some of these websites.<br /><br />The government’s failure to contain the Assam ethnic violence on the ground and in the cyber world is palpable and identical. Sources said that though the hate messages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter started way back on July 13 as their probe shows, the government took too much time to patrol the e-world to identify and take action against the culprits. It is virtually the same story displayed by the state as well as the Centre to contain violence and its aftermath which resulted in people of north-east fleeing back to Guwahati from other parts of the country, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.<br /><br />The Ministry of Home Affairs is in touch with the social networking sites Google, Twitter and Facebook, seeking their help to investigate the matter. It is also considering the possibility of writing to the main offices of Google and Facebook in the US, seeking their help in tracking down individual URLs to unravel the cyber conspiracy.<br /></p>
