The official website of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went offline, on the 5th of March, after a hacker allegedly defaced it.
According to sources, today morning, there was a GIF on the BJP website, featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, followed by a muppet singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
Later, the website showed a message stating, the website is undergoing maintenance and will be back soon.
The group behind the hacking is still not identified. The BJP IT cell said, “We are working on it. Please be patient.”
Divya Spandana, the spokesperson of the Indian National Congress (INC,) mocked the BJP and posted a tweet about the matter.
Bhaiya aur Bhehno if you’re not looking at the BJP website right now- you’re missing out
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) March 5, 2019
This is not the first time a government website has been hacked. In 2011, the official website of the INC was hacked. The website of the Supreme Court was also targeted in 2018.
A senior official at the Security Establishment said, after the Pulwama terror attack, approximately 90 Indian government websites were hacked, in an attempt to steal data. The individuals suspected to have hacked the 90 government sites were from the terrorist group Jaish e Mohammed (JeM,) in Pakistan.
The website admin and the IT cell of the BJP are working on getting the website up and running again and the matter will be resolved soon.
Stay tuned for further updates.