Cong site hacked, Sonia’s profile page defaced

Amid raging debate over the government's proposal to crackdown on "unacceptable" internet content, hackers broke into the Congress websites on Friday and defaced party chief Sonia Gandhi's profile page with objectionable material. HT reports.

Amid the raging debate over the government’s proposal to crack down on “unacceptable” internet content, hackers broke into Congress websites on Friday and defaced party chief Sonia Gandhi's profile page with objectionable material.

The cyber attack coincided with her 65th birthday.

“Some people hacked the party’s official websites on Friday morning and one paragraph (on Gandhi’s profile page) was replaced with obscene language,” Congress computer department chief Vishwajeet Prithvijeet Singh said.

He said the attack on websites — aicc.org.in and congress.org.in — prompted the party to “put them down”. However, the third website — inc.org.in — remained unaffected. Singh added a detailed check of the servers had been carried out and the party would return to cyberspace soon.

The attack came just days after telecom minister Kapil Sibal asked social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, to remove offensive material from their websites, triggering a controversy, with internet users complaining of censorship.

The Congress has witnessed frequent cyber attacks by hackers. They had earlier tried to break into party websites thrice one night.