The official website of Kerala’s General Administration Department, one of the key portals used by the state government for administrative functions and public information, was defaced in a cyberattack discovered on Sunday morning. A hacking group identifying itself as “Team Blackleets” and claiming Pakistani origin took credit for the breach, replacing the site’s content with a Pakistani flag and a message reading “We are Pakistani hackers. Every day, many websites have been hacked; today is your day. ” The website’s hosting provider suspended the account as soon as the defacement was discovered, taking the site offline to prevent further tampering while the incident was investigated.
Kerala’s cyber security teams, working alongside the state IT Mission, which manages several of the government’s e-governance platforms, began examining server logs and backend systems to determine whether any sensitive administrative data had been accessed or exfiltrated during the breach. Officials said the site would be restored to public access only after it has been thoroughly verified as secure, to avoid a repeat compromise. The state government said it plans to file a formal complaint with the Kerala Police Cyber Cell so that a criminal investigation can be opened into the attack and, if possible, the individuals or group behind it identified. The incident has renewed concern among Kerala’s IT officials about the vulnerability of state government web infrastructure to politically motivated hacking groups, particularly those claiming links to Pakistan, a pattern that has recurred periodically against Indian government websites in the past.
No ransom demand or data-leak threat had been reported in connection with the breach at the time officials gave their update. The state has not yet said which specific services hosted on the GAD website, if any, were disrupted for members of the public beyond the site’s front-facing pages. Cybersecurity researchers say defacement attacks of this kind are typically opportunistic and aimed at publicity rather than deep data theft, though officials in Kerala said they were not ruling out a more serious compromise until their review is complete.