Indian Cyber Force

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Indian Cyber Force (ICF) is a hacktivist group based in India that conducts politically motivated cyberattacks against entities including countries in problematic relations with India.[1] Countries targeted by the group in the past include Canada,[2] Pakistan, China,[3] Palestine,[4] Qatar,[5] Maldives[6] and Bangladesh[7] with Pakistan being the most targeted country.[8] Some attacks are accused to be motivated by Hindu nationalism[9] and anti-Muslim sentiment.[8] The group has been described as pro-India[10] and pro-Israel.[11][12][13]

ICF attacked the website of Canadian Armed Forces in 2023[2][10] following which, Canada's Communications Security Establishment listed India as a "cyber threat" in October 2024.[14] The group has leaked data of about 270,000 Bangladeshi citizens in 2023.[7] It has attacked the websites of Hamas, Palestinian National Bank and Palestinian Telecommunication Company following October 7 attacks.[15] Following Pahalgam attack, the group claimed data leaks of multiple Pakistani entities including Habib Bank Limited, University of Balochistan, Sindh Police and Federal Board of Revenue.[16][17][18]

Webz.io, a Web intelligence firm, named Indian Cyber Force in its list of 5 most active hacktivist groups of 2024.[19] Zone-H archive has 43 records of website defacements by the group[20] while Zone-Xsec has 177 records.[21] As of May 2025, the group had over 30,000 followers on Twitter.[22] Louis Hur, the CEO of Singapore-based threat intelligence platform StealthMole[23] alleged in a social media post that as per StealthMole's data, about 23% of Indian Cyber Force's members are associated with Indian government-linked entities[24] and speculated the group of likely being state-backed.[25] However the group's Twitter profile calls itself "Non-Governmental".

Attacks

2023

Bangladesh Data Leak

On March 17, 2023, Indian Cyber Force compromised Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar police's server and leaked data of about 270,000 Bangladeshi citizens. On March 28, Khulna Metropolitan Police was also attacked.[7][26]

Retaliatory Cyberattacks amid G20 Summit

On September 9, 2023, CloudSEK, an India-based threat intelligence platform, disclosed that hacktivist groups from Pakistan and Indonesia were planning cyberattacks targeting India during the country's hosting of the G20 Summit.[27][28] Indian hacktivist groups, including ICF, announced plans for cyberattacks in retaliation. ICF reportedly compromised 100 websites and identified over 15 vulnerabilities in government websites. The group gained attention for targeting the domain of Indonesia's Kopassus military unit ("kopassus.mil.id"), making it inaccessible. Additionally, ICF took down the Indonesian Embassy's website, which remained offline for around 35 minutes.[29]

#OpCanada

In September 2023, Indian Cyber Force launched a cyberattack operation titled "#OpCanada"[30] following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation to the Indian government of being involved in the killing of the Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar and a diplomatic row between India and Canada following it.[31] They had attacked the websites of Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian military via DDoS attacks which remained unavailable for two hours.[10][32] Other websites targeted with DDoS attacks include that of the House of Commons, Elections Canada. Multiple websites belonging to restaurants and medical clinics in Canada were defaced. The defaced websites displayed a message on a dark background with a Matrix digital rain while a music played in background.[33] The website of Ottawa Hospital was attacked which faced a temporary outage.[34] In response to the cyberattack, Canada's Communications Security Establishment listed India as a "cyber threat" in October 2024.[14]

Cyberattack on Palestine following October 7 Attack

Following the October 7 attacks, Indian Cyber Force launched attacks against Palestinian entities including Palestinian National Bank ("tnb.ps"), Palestinian Telecommunication Company ("paltel.ps"), Hamas ("hamas.ps") and "webmail.gov.ps".[15][35][36][37] Reportedly they also gained unauthorized access into more than 200 networking devices belonging to schools, hospitals and other institutions in Palestine.[38]

Qatar Cyberattack

In November 2023, the group launched a series of cyberattacks against Qatar, motivated by the country's decision to sentence eight former Indian Navy officers to death in an espionage case. Reportedly, ICF accessed and exposed account details associated with Qatar, gained unauthorized access into multiple IP cameras and web servers, took down Qatar's eCommerce Portal by DDoS attacks for a duration of 2 hours as well as the website of Al Anees, a shopping store in Qatar. Website of a shopping store "oasis.qa" was defaced.[38][39][40]

Pakistan Police IP Camera Hack

In November 2023, ICF breached Pakistan Police's IP camera network and revealed compromised IP address and login credentials on their social media channels. The camera footage viewed through the IP address showed five people in uniform, working on computers.[41][42]

2024

Maldives Cyberattack

In January 2024, amid the India–Maldives diplomatic row, ICF targeted several Maldivian institutions with cyberattacks. Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology's official website was defaced with a dark background and a message conveying Maldives' alleged "ungratefulness" despite help from India in the past.[43][44] The website of Maldivian Juvenile Court and the Facebook page of Auditor General's Office were also hacked[45]

Pakistan IP Cameras Hack

In June 2024, ICF claimed to have hacked more than 150 IP cameras belonging to entities including National Bank of Pakistan, Zeen (clothing store in Pakistan) and other private organizations. They released video footage of the breached cameras on their Twitter handle.[8][46]

Bangladesh ISP Hacks

In August 2024, ICF launched cyberattacks against Bangladesh and released videos claiming to have gained access to the network monitoring dashboard of Grameenphone and other internet service providers.[19]

2025

Savar Municipality Website Defacement

On March 18, 2025, Bangladesh's Savar Municipality's website was defaced by the group. The defaced page displayed the following text:[47]

You vile Bangladeshi & Pakistani; terrorists, your acts of terror stain our world with innocent blood. Your cowardice and malice will not prevail. Justice will find you and end your reign of terror. These courageous soldiers stand tall, they fight valiantly, they rise to the challenge, and sadly, some even lay down their lives for our nation. It's vital that we all stand up for our country, embrace our pride, culture, and traditions, and work together to defeat these cowardly terrorists. Protecting our homeland is more crucial now than ever before, and it's time to stay alert and determined. Together, we can help our nation rise up and overcome these challenges.

Hacktivism following Pahalgam Attack

In April 2025, following Pahalgam attack, ICF claimed to have breached the internal systems of Pakistan's Habib Bank Limited and extracted HR related data which includes employee records, bank account details, education history, salaries and internal documents. A sample file, sized 6.6 MB, was shared as proof on their Telegram channel.[17][48] They have also claimed database breaches of Euro Oil, AJK Supreme Court, University of Balochistan, Wada Call Agency and Sindh Police.[16][49]

On May 6, the group compromised more than 1000 IP cameras across Pakistan and shared clips from the camera feeds on their Twitter handle.[50][51][52] Additionally they breached Islamia University of Bahawalpur and leaked a 38.2 MB archive file containing records of over 150,000 students including CNICs, passwords, residential addresses. News9, a subsidiary of TV9 Network conducted an investigation of the leaked data and claimed that most of it was found to be authentic, however some older records that dated between 2021 and 2024 were also discovered.[53][54]

On May 9, the group leaked 150 gigabytes of data allegedly belonging to Pakistan's Federal Board of Revenue IRIS portal. The leaked data contained CNICs, names, phone numbers, addresses and tax records.[18][54]

Reception

In October 2023, the Computer Emergency Response Team of Europe (CERT-EU) published its "Cyber Security Brief (October 2023)" containing mention to Indian Cyber Force:

Indian Cyber Force (ICF) allegedly disrupted access to Palestinian entities, including a Hamas website, a telecommunication company, a bank, a government e-mail service, a transportation entity, and an ecommerce website[4]

A member of cybersecurity team at Equinix, Will Thomas, said to the Wired (magazine):

The Indian cyber force actually claimed to DDoS hamas.ps and webmail.gov.ps[37]

On 23 October 2024, Le Monde, a French daily newspaper, published an article titled "The new era of hacktivism" containing mention to Indian Cyber Force:

NoName057, Anonymous Sudan, Philippines Exodus Security, Indian Cyber Force: It has become hard to make sense of the jungle of names that have proliferated, particularly on the messaging platform Telegram.[55]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hacktivism Unveiled, India Insights into the footprints of hacktivists, Radware. Radware(17 May 2023). Retrieved 2025-04-19.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Digital vandals hit Canadian websites amid tensions with India. Reuters(29 September 2023).
  3. ↑ Indian Cyber Force Hackers To Target Pakistan, China, Khaitan, Ashish. The Cyber Express(2023-09-06). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cyber Security Brief 23-11 - October 2023. CERT-EU(6 November 2023). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  5. ↑ Indian hackers target Qatar govt sites over death penalty to ex-Navy officers, Fatima, Sakina. The Siasat Daily(2023-11-09). Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  6. ↑ Hackers Target Government Websites Over Diplomatic Spat With India, Richards, Andrew. Maldives Republic(2024-02-24). Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Who watches the watchmen?. The Daily Star (Bangladesh)(2023-07-14). Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 The Rise of State-Sponsored Hacktivism{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Forescout(29 April 2025)
  9. ↑ Understanding Hacktivists: The Overlap of Ideology and Cybercrime | Trend Micro (FI), Sancho, David. Trend Micro(4 February 2025). Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Pro-India Hacker Group Claims Responsibility for Cyberattack on Canadian Forces Website. The Wire (India)(28 September 2023). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  11. ↑ Forescout reports rise of state-sponsored hacktivism, as geopolitics rewrites cyber threat landscape. industrialcyber.co(30 April 2025). Retrieved 30 April 2025.
  12. ↑ ISRAEL GAZA CONFLICT : THE CYBER PERSPECTIVE. CYFIRMA(18 October 2023). Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  13. ↑ Cyber Conflict Erupts Amid Israel-Hamas Clash, Natani, Sharad. The420.in(2023-10-10). Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Canada lists India as cyber threat for the first time, Wang, Jeffrey. jurist.org(2024-10-31). Retrieved 2025-04-17.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Israel-Palestine conflict: How Indian hackers sunk their cyber fangs into Hamas, Palestinian national bank, Team, DNA Web. DNA India(9 October 2023). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 India, Pakistan hackers trade codes & command in digital firefight. The Economic Times(2025-05-01). Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Невидима війна або як Індія та Пакистан воюють у кіберпросторі, Taran, Viktor. Ukrinform(2025-05-10). Retrieved 2025-05-11.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 India-Pak cyber war escalates: Indian hackers claim breach of Pakistan's tax database, leak 150GB data, Shankar, Siddharth. News9live(2025-05-09). Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 The 5 Most Active Hacktivist Groups of 2024 | Webz.io. webz.io. Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  20. ↑ INDIAN CYBER FORCE | Zone-H.org. Zone-H. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  21. ↑ Mirror Archive. Zone-Xsec. Retrieved 2025-01-27.
  22. ↑ Indian Cyber Force (@CyberForceX) / X. X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  23. ↑ StealthMole raises $7M Series A for its AI-powered dark web intelligence platform, Park, Kate. TechCrunch(2024-03-28). Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  24. ↑ Louis hur on X, Hur, Louis. Twitter(26 April 2025).
  25. ↑ #cyberwarfare #kashmirconflict #darkwebintel #stealthmole #kashmir | Louis Hur, Hur, Louis. LinkedIn(26 April 2025). Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  26. ↑ Impact of Citizen Data Leaks: Why It Matters, Hossain, Farooque. Daily Sun (Bangladesh)(29 August 2023). Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  27. ↑ G20 cyber threat: Pakistan, Indonesia hackers plan to attack govt's digital infra during Summit - ET Government. The Economic Times(9 September 2023). Retrieved 2025-01-30.
  28. ↑ Decoding Pak-based cyberattacks that targeted government sites ahead of G20. India Today(2023-09-09). Retrieved 2025-01-30.
  29. ↑ G20 Summit 2023: Indian Hackers' Counteroffensive Against Pakistani Hacktivists' Anti-India Ops. Times Now(2023-09-09). Retrieved 2025-01-30.
  30. ↑ Indian hackers' #OpCanada underway amid diplomatic tensions; target Canadian armed forces website & more, Iyer, Sunita. Asianet News(28 September 2023). Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  31. ↑ Trudeau accuses India's government of involvement in killing of Canadian Sikh leader. cbc.ca(18 September 2023).
  32. ↑ Pro-India hackers claim responsibility for disruption of Canadian Forces website. The Globe and Mail(2023-09-27). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  33. ↑ Cyberattacks hit military, Parliament websites as India-based group targets Canada. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation(28 September 2023).
  34. ↑ Cyberattacks hit military, Parliament websites as India hacker group targets Canada, Casaletto, Lucas. CityNews(2023-09-28). Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  35. ↑ Israel-Palestine Conflict: As 'Islamic' Hackers Continue Targeting Israel, Indian Hackers Take Down Official Hamas Website, Shankar, Siddharth. Times Now(2023-10-08). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  36. ↑ Israel-Hamas War: Indian Cyber Space Caught In The Crossfire As Threat Groups Escalate Online Conflict, Sherif, Abdul Haleem. Outlook Business(2023-10-20). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Template:Cite magazine
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Indian hackers launch cyber attack on Qatar in response to Espionage case | Today News. Mint(2023-11-08). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  39. ↑ Hackers Launch Cyber Attack On Qatar In Retaliation For Former Navy Officer's Execution, Adnal, Madhuri. Oneindia(2023-11-10). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  40. ↑ Indian hackers on cyber-attack spree on various countries. Samaa TV(2025-05-03). Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  41. ↑ Hacking Alert: Indian Hackers Claim to Crack Pakistani Police CCTV – Exclusive Inside Look!. Times Now(2023-11-15). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  42. ↑ Indian Cyber Force Claims Cyber Intrusion into Pakistan's Police's CCTV Camera network. www.newsbharati.com(16 November 2023). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  43. ↑ Home Ministry's website hacked, Mohamed, Naizak. SunOnline International(23 February 2024). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  44. ↑ Cyberattacks On The Maldivian Agencies Amid Diplomatic Strain. The Cyber Express(2024-01-12). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  45. ↑ Maldives' Home Ministry website hacked over 'anti-India actions': Report. Business Today (India)(2024-02-25). Retrieved 2025-01-24.
  46. ↑ Pakistan over 150+ cameras have been hacked. Twitter(19 June 2024).
  47. ↑ Hacked By Indian Cyber Force(2025-03-18). Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  48. ↑ Pakistanis Roast Indian Hackers for HBL Data Breach Claims, Aftab, Manik. TechJuice(2025-04-29). Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  49. ↑ Pahalgam attack: India-Pakistan cyber war erupts amidst border tensions, Gupta, Om. India TV(2025-05-01). Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  50. ↑ Cyber War: Indian Hackers Hack Thousands Of Pakistan CCTVs and Leak Pak Students Details, Jeyya, Siby. India Herald(8 May 2025). Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  51. ↑ Template:Cite AV media
  52. ↑ Indian Threat Actors Purports Breach of Pakistan's Surveillance - Rewterz. Rewterz(2025-05-07). Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  53. ↑ Breaking: Cyberattack on Indian government websites and Assam girls college data leak by Pak, Bangladesh hackers, Shankar, Siddharth. News9live(2025-05-07). Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 How pro-India hackers defended country during cross-border cyberattacks amid Op Sindoor. The Times of India(2025-05-25). Retrieved 2025-05-29.
  55. ↑ The new era of hacktivism. Le Monde(2024-10-23). Retrieved 2025-01-24.

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