Hyderabad government website hacked, redirecting users to betting site amid growing cyber security concerns- Details
A recent cyber attack on the official website of the Hyderabad Water Board has raised concerns about the security of government-run websites. After a series of suspicious clicks, users found themselves redirected from the Hyderabad Water Board’s website to a betting site. This marks another disturbing incident in a series of attacks on government platforms, including an earlier breach involving the Supreme Court of India’s YouTube channel.
What happened to the Hyderabad Water Board website?
The problem started when some Google search results related to Hyderabad Water Board resulted in unusual links. Upon clicking, the user is taken to a completely different URL, a betting site called betwww20.com. This is not a one-time incident as many parts of the official website were affected. Our team observed this behavior for two consecutive days and confirmed that the site was indeed compromised.
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The problem only occurs through Google News links
The problem is especially apparent for people accessing the site via a Google News link. Instead of visiting the official page of Hyderabad Water Board, users are greeted by the betting website. Interestingly, visiting the site directly does not trigger a redirect, which indicates a vulnerability specifically related to the site’s visibility on Google News. As of now, the problem has persisted for more than 24 hours, indicating that the authorities responsible for maintaining the website have not yet resolved the breach.
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This situation raises important questions about the security of government websites and the potential risks users face. Cyber attackers may have exploited a weakness in the way a website displays in Google search results, allowing them to hijack traffic and redirect users to a malicious page. Testing on different browsers, including Microsoft Edge, did not show any issues, but users on Chrome did experience harmful redirects.
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Despite the ongoing issue, there has been no official statement from the security authorities of the Hyderabad Water Board. It is expected that government officials will soon investigate the issue and take necessary steps to fix the vulnerability and prevent similar attacks in the future.
