A career in Jihad, interested?

Terrorist organisations are hiring Pakistani computer professionals to target Indian websites both government and corporate

It is not just the big IT companies who are looking for tech-savvy youth in Pakistan. The terrorist organisations are equally interested.

Advertisements are regularly put up to attract young professionals for making a career in Jihad. Once recruited, the young minds undergo rigorous training to specifically target Indian websitesu00a0both government and corporateu00a0to steal critical data, said a senior intelligence official.

"All terror groups have hired IT professionals, who are highly qualified to launch e-attacks and sabotage websites. It can not be denied that they are nurturing a new breed of cyber experts for targeting the Indian virtual space," the official added.

Attacks on Indian cyberspace from Pakistani hacker communities have increased in intensity and frequency.

"Earlier, the virus were quite simple in nature but now they are programmed for rapid and serious attacks. They can multiply and affect several websites at one time," said cyber crime expert Sunny Vaghela.

Vaghela also said that most of these attackers are not more than 30 years in age.

"Pakistani websites feature vacancies for hackers who are capable to attack Indian websites. Considering the number and intensity of Pakistani attacks it can be ascertained that they are well-funded but we are not sure about who is behind it," Vaghela said.

It is learnt that students from Pakistan and Middle East are all set to launch a major attack on Indian websites.
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"Lashkar-e-Hackers, which is also known as LeH,u00a0 is an active group which only attacks Indian websites. They have already attacked many Indian sites and they are expected to get more aggressive," Vaghela added.

Such hackers leave messages for Indian hackers daring them to retaliate. PCA (Pakistan Cyber Army), KSA, Pakbugs Z-company and Zombie_ksa(pakbugscrew) are some of the most active hacker groups in Pakistan.

The cyber war between the hacker communities of the two countries is nothing new. It peaked between 1997 and 2002. From the Pakistani side, the war was led by Pakistan Hackers Club (PHC) and Gforce. These two groups were responsible for defacing hundreds of Indian websites during that period.