The official website of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)—upsc.gov.in was hacked on September 10 for a few hours and was restored quickly. Its homepage displayed the image of the popular animated character Doraemon with an unusual expression. Days after the government website was hacked, the Delhi Police Special Cell who was investigating on the matter detained a 17-year-old boy who reportedly is in connection with the incident. The teenager is accused of hacking the official site of UPSC and hence has been arrested from his rented home in Jamia area of the national capital. upsc.gov.in Hacked! Image of Doraemon Appears on UPSC Website Homepage; Web Portal is Under Maintenance. 

UPSC’s hacked website showed an image of a heart and the Japanese cartoon character was captioned, “Doraemon!!! Pick up the call,” and “I m stewpeed” written on the bottom with the Hindi title track on the background. The incident came into the light when some candidates shared screenshots of the website on the Twitter late that night. The site was restored the next day, September 11. According to the media outlets, the 17-year-old confessed that he hacked UPSC’s website and he learned to hack by watching videos on the internet. Fake Sagarmala Website! Shipping Ministry Warns Candidates Not to Get Mislead by False Job Openings. 

Over the past few weeks, he attempted to hack several government websites, but failed. Finally, he found the commission’s website to be vulnerable and hacked it. “With the help of technical surveillance, police traced and apprehended him. The juvenile was produced in front of the Juvenile Justice Board and handed over to his brother, who is a software engineer,” an officer told The Indian Express.

Police said that the boy is from Uttar Pradesh and is pursuing a technical course from a central university in Delhi. His father is a businessman, currently on abroad has been informed about the incident. Meanwhile, as per UPSC, the content of the website is owned and managed by the commission, unlike other government websites which are taken care by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). In the past too, hackers have targeted such popular sites such as Andhra University and Jamia Millia Islamia which was hacked thrice in a day.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 28, 2018 04:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).