KUALA LUMPUR: A group of Malaysian hackers, called Dragonforce Malaysia, launched a slew of cyber attacks on close to 70 government websites and private portals in India on Sunday.
The group, according to the Times of India, hacked official websites of the Indian embassy in Israel and the National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management and the Institute of Science, Nagpur among others, and the portals of the Delhi Public School.
In the state of Maharashtra alone, the group defaced more than 50 websites.
The attack is believed to be a retaliation to the offensive remarks made by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, against Prophet Muhammad.
Nupur's comments sparked a wave of diplomatic protests from several Muslim countries and institutions, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The BJP has suspended her and expelled another party spokesperson, Naveen Jindal, following the diplomatic fallout.
Times of India reported that the hacking group also sent out text and audio messages that read "For you is your religion and for me is my religion."
This, however is not the first time Dragonforce Malaysia has launched mass hacking of foreign sites.
The notorious hackers, in May 2021, hacked into various Israeli CCTV networks, that belonged to government agencies and personal homes.
A month later, the rogue group hacked into the database of an Israeli recruitment company, Academe, and leaked the personal details of hundreds of thousands of Israeli students online.
Following their recent cyber attacks on India, the group posted a message on its homepage that read: "it is a special operation on the insult of our Prophet Muhammad".