Confusion prevails in the Ministry of Home Affairs about its website having been hacked or not. Some reports claimed that the MHA website was hacked and experts were trying to ascertain the damage caused to the portal.

A PTI tweet also said that the MHA website was hacked. The PTI tweet quoted home ministry officials as saying that the website was hacked "prompting the authorities to temporarily block it."

Ministry of Home Affairs (#MHA) website #hacked, prompting authorities to temporarily block it: officials. Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 12, 2017

However, when India Today spoke to senior MHA officials about the reported hacking of the website, they said, "The website is down since yesterday. The NIC (national informatics centre) is trying to find out the reason."

"We are not sure about the website being hacked. Pending investigation by the NIC, the website has been blocked," the officials said.

The report of MHA website being hacked comes close on the heels of the hacking of NSG (national security guard) portal last month.

The hackers called themselves 'Alone Injector' and left a 'Pakistan Zindabad' message on the website. The authorities had then, too, taken down the website to recover and repair it.

WEBSITE NOT HACKED

Hours after the news broke, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) confirmed that the website has not been hacked and it is blocked due to repair work.

"There has been no hacking. The site is under construction, that is why it's down," he said.

The Home Ministry website remained inaccessible throughout Sunday morning, which was subsequently attributed to a hacking in many news reports.