Amid heightened geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack, a series of cyber intrusions originating from Pakistan have targeted Indian websites linked to military-affiliated institutions.
Official sources confirmed that four such incidents were recorded in recent days, marking a digital front to the escalating standoff along the Line of Control (LoC).
The cyber attacks, traced to a group identifying itself as “IOK Hacker” or “Internet of Khilafah,” were aimed at disrupting and defacing publicly accessible portals affiliated with the Indian armed forces. While none of India’s mission-critical or classified networks were compromised, the attempts underscore the evolving hybrid warfare strategy by adversaries, mixing physical aggression with cyber sabotage.
Schools and Welfare Sites in Crosshairs
Among the targets were the websites of Army Public School Srinagar and Army Public School Ranikhet, both subjected to digital defacements and propaganda-laced content. In Srinagar’s case, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack was also launched, temporarily taking the website offline. “They managed to deface the homepage, and cause DDoS disruptions, but the web managers were able to quickly rectify the issue,” an army source said.
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In a more audacious attempt, hackers tried to breach the Army Welfare Housing Organisation’s database, potentially aiming to extract sensitive personal information of serving and retired military personnel. Simultaneously, a similar effort was made to compromise the Indian Air Force Placement Organisation portal, which caters to veterans and job placement assistance.
Authorities moved swiftly to isolate all four sites, taking them offline and conducting immediate restoration efforts. Officials stressed that the attacks were superficial in nature, targeting only the surface-level digital infrastructure, and that no classified or operational military networks were breached at any stage.
Pakistan’s Cyber Playbook: Provocation Without Penetration
According to Indian intelligence assessments, the hackers’ actions appear to have been retaliatory and symbolic—following their failure to infiltrate core national infrastructure. “These were public-facing platforms. When national defense networks proved impenetrable, they targeted softer, more visible sites,” said an official familiar with the matter.
While the immediate impact of these intrusions was minimal, the propaganda value—especially given the current tension between the two nuclear-armed neighbors—is significant. Experts say such attacks are part of a broader playbook to sow distrust, create panic, and amplify conflict narratives via social media and digital forums.
These cyber attacks come against a backdrop of renewed border skirmishes, social media warfare, and the redeployment of military hardware by Pakistan along the frontier. The incident has further galvanized India’s cybersecurity establishment, prompting renewed discussions on the resilience of military-affiliated digital infrastructure.