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Summary Hackers broke into the website of Congress party and defaced the profile page Sonia Gandhi.
Hackers broke into the official website of Indias ruling Congress party Friday and defaced the profile page of party president Sonia Gandhi with a pornographic message.The attack coincided with Gandhis 65th birthday and came just days after the Indian government pledged a crackdown on unacceptable Internet content that included faked naked pictures of the Congress leader.I have been informed that the website has been hacked, Congress spokesman Tom Vadakhan said, adding that the site had been swiftly closed down once the intrusion was detected.The pornographic text included a reference to a Pakistan-based email address, but did not otherwise identify the hackers. Vadakhan told AFP that the partys computer department was investigating the incident.Earlier this week, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal pledged a crackdown on unacceptable online content, saying Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook had ignored Indias demands to screen images and data before they are uploaded.We will evolve guidelines and mechanisms to deal with the issue, Sibal told reporters, without detailing what steps might be taken.He highlighted examples of faked pictures of naked politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, and other images and social network pages that he said could inflame religious tensions.Sibals comments prompted a storm of online ridicule along with warnings of the risk to the countrys image as a bastion of free speech.Official Indian websites have been repeatedly hacked in the past. Last year, a group who identified themselves as the Pakistan Cyber Army hacked the website of the countrys top police agency.The group also claimed to have hacked a number of other websites in recent years, including Indias state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, in retaliation for Indian hackers accessing Pakistan sites.
