The mandarins of Mantralaya were in a tizzy on Tuesday morning after they discovered that the state government’s official website maharashtra.gov.in had been hacked on Monday night.

Sources in the IT department said the site had been disfigured with the picture of a palm, a logo of a so-called “Hacker School" and the words “Al Vida" . An official said, “The site has been affected by viruses on many occasions, but this is the first time it has been hacked. But this happened because there was no firewall." He expressed surprise that a firewall had not been installed yet.

Said Maharashtra government’s secretary, information technology, Kshatrapati Shivaji: “We are in the process of restoring the site. Fortunately, no major damage has been caused to the site."

Chief secretary Johny Joseph was quite perturbed about the development. He told TOI: “This is a serious matter. I have asked the Mumbai crime branch to take over the investigation. I have also asked the secretary (IT) to install protective measures and ensure that the site is not hacked again."

Joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said, “We suspect that the hacking could have taken place from Washington. However, a clear picture will emerge only after we complete our investigation."

Meanwhile, the incident has focussed attention on the website. There are complaints about difficulty in accessing it. Also, it is not updated regularly and often the information required is not available. When asked about this on earlier occasions, Shivaji claimed there was nothing wrong with the website. He had speculated that the computers and systems of those trying to access it may be faulty.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 2:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.