Screen grab showing MHA website down

New Delhi: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday acknowledged that the official website of the Ministry of Defence was "hacked" and assured that the same would be "restored shortly". She further promised that every "possible step" would be taken to prevent any such eventuality. The official website of the Ministry of Defence was hacked by alleged Chinese hackers. Within about an hour, websites of Law, Home, and Labour ministries too showed errors triggering a speculation of a widespread attack on the Indian government websites. When opened, the home page of the Home Ministry site (www.mha.gov.in) displayed a message "the requested service is temporarily unavailable. Sorry for Inconvenience. It would be available soon." "The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later," showed Law and Labour ministry websites.

Ministry of Defence website is not hacked. There is some technical issue since 2:30 PM today: National Informatics Centre, which manages the website clarified. The Defence Ministry website page showed loading errors when accessed. The alleged incident comes on a day the Indian Air Force issued a Request for Information (RFI) for 110 fighter jets. News agency ANI said that "Chinese characters" were appearing on the webpage. "Action is initiated after the hacking of MoD website (http://mod.nic.in). The website shall be restored shortly. Needless to say, every possible step required to prevent any such eventuality in the future will be taken," Sitharaman said in a tweet. "Ministry of Defence website hacked, Chinese characters appearing on the website home page," ANI said in a tweet.

An official spokesperson said the National Informatics Centre, which hosts the MHA site, is upgrading the security system of the website leading to its temporary suspension. The spokesperson said the move has been taken as part of extra precautions. The alleged attack by the Chinese hackers comes just days after the Indian Army recently posted a video creating awareness about the attempts by China-based hackers.

Ministry of Defence website hacked, Chinese characters appearing on the website home page. pic.twitter.com/VBzWXLC8EM — ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2018

(This is a developing story, more details are awaited)