EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
India–s digital systems recently faced a surge of cross-border cyber incidents that exposed the scale and intensity of hacktivist activity. Multiple groups carried out attacks involving data theft, website defacements, denial-of-service disruptions, and phishing schemes. Judicial servers were compromised, with millions of records and user details allegedly stolen, while government portals were forced offline during high-profile days to increase impact. Other actors staged defacement campaigns, posting political slogans on public websites, while phishing clones of citizen service portals were designed to harvest personal information. In response, Indian groups launched counter-operations, targeting adversary websites and leaking access credentials as a show of strength. Together, these actions reveal a growing trend of hacktivism that has moved from one-off disruptions to well-planned multinational operations meant to undermine trust in public-facing digital platforms.
The elements of these attacks show an evolving playbook that blends disruption with advanced tactics. Breaches of court servers highlighted the theft of sensitive judicial data, while denial-of-service attacks demonstrated the fragility of government portals under coordinated pressure. Defacement operations were used as digital graffiti to spread propaganda and signal political messaging. Phishing operations cloned service portals, collecting sensitive citizen data such as identification numbers and birth dates. A fake tax notice campaign went further by delivering a malicious installer disguised as an official document, which upon execution modified system settings, created persistence through hidden processes, and connected to a remote server for data exfiltration. The malware also contained Chinese-language indicators, suggesting broader foreign involvement in orchestrating targeted campaigns against Indian users.
The wider pattern of activity reflects a cycle of escalating hostilities where hacktivism, cybercrime, and political messaging are increasingly interlinked. Retaliatory operations from Indian groups indicate that defensive responses are being matched with offensive counterattacks, creating a digital standoff between rival actors. This environment increases the risk of continuous disruption, where critical institutions and public platforms become symbolic targets. The inclusion of advanced phishing and malware campaigns highlights how adversaries are moving beyond simple defacements to combine social engineering with technical exploitation. For ordinary users, this raises the likelihood of fraud and data theft, while for defenders it underscores the importance of faster detection, coordinated responses, and improved resilience of citizen-facing systems. The incidents together demonstrate how cyberspace is being used as an extension of geopolitical rivalries, where influence, propaganda, and disruption converge against national digital infrastructure.
THREAT PROFILE:
| Tactic | Technique ID | Technique | Sub-technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Access | T1566.001 | Phishing | Spearphishing attachment |
| Initial Access | T1566.002 | Phishing | Spearphishing link |
| Execution | T1204.002 | User Execution | Malicious file |
| Persistence | T1547.001 | Boot or Logon Autostart Execution | Registry run keys and startup folder |
| Persistence | T1055.001 | Process Injection | Dynamic-link library injection |
| Privilege Escalation | T1068 | Exploitation for Privilege Escalation | – |
| Defense Evasion | T1036 | Masquerading | – |
| Defense Evasion | T1027 | Obfuscated Files or Information | – |
| Credential Access | T1003.001 | Credential Dumping | LSASS memory |
| Credential Access | T1081 | Credentials in Files | – |
| Discovery | T1046 | Network Service Discovery | – |
| Lateral Movement | T1078.002 | Valid Accounts | Domain accounts |
| Collection | T1213 | Data from Information Repositories | – |
| Command and Control | T1071.001 | Application Layer Protocol | Web protocols HTTP/S |
| Exfiltration | T1041 | Exfiltration over C2 channel | – |
| Impact | T1499 | Endpoint Denial of Service | – |
| Impact | T1491 | Defacement | – |
MBC MAPPING:
| Objective | Behaviour ID | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Impact | B0033 | Denial of Service |
| Command and Control | B0030.001 | Send Data |
| Collection | E1083.m02 | File and Directory Discovery |
| Discovery | E1082.m02 | Enumerate Environment Variables |
| Defense Evasion | F0015.001 | Export Address Table Hooking |
| Execution | E1059 | Command and Scripting Interpreter |
| Lateral Movement | E1105 | Ingress Tool Transfer |
| Anti-Static Analysis | E1027.m03 | Encoding - Custom Algorithm |
| Anti-Behavioral Analysis | B0007.003 | Human User Check |
REFERENCES:
The following reports contain further
https://securityonline.info/hacktivists-launch-coordinated-attacks-on-indias-infrastructure/
https://www.cyfirma.com/research/digital-frontlines-india-under-multi-nation-hacktivist-attack/