GUWAHATI: Gauhati University’s (GU) official website was hacked in the wee hours of July 3 by unknown hackers who threatened to disclose secrets of the university if their demands were not met.
“The university website was hacked at around 3 to 4 am and the university had restored the same by 5 am. The website was hacked again this morning but we soon restored that. Further investigation is still going on and we are trying to find out who did this,” said Hemant Kr Nath, Registrar of Guwahati.
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Students of the university have also filed an appeal with the university authorities to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.
“The university website has our data which can be misused if hacked like this. This is not the first time the website has been hacked. Earlier when the website was hacked, hackers added links to porn sites on the university website,” said Moon Talukdar, General Secretary of the university’s PG Students’ Union.
“Since admission time is approaching, our data could be used by private institutions for admission purposes also,” said the student leader.
“FAKE FREE ADMISSION? WOW! YOU GUYS REALLY LOVE TO GET HACKED! DON’T YOU?” said the website when it was hacked.
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“Let’s talk about the matter? Straight to the point! What the f**k you guys are up to Guwahati University? Do you even know how much students are struggling for exam fees and admission?” said a message on the hacked website.
“Let us directly clue you guys (GU officials) in! This HACK is “NOT” for fun. We can get access to each and everything Guwahati University literally owns! You guys better watch your back,” read the message.
The university website was hacked on December, 2019 by some unknown hackers.
When visitors entered the homepage, a message appeared saying, “Upcoming question papers leaked: QUESTION PAPERS.” The link, when clicked upon, redirected visitors to a pornographic site.
Earlier in 2015, a student named Ronny Das of Class XII had also found flaws in the network server of the university.
Hackers could have had complete access to the university’s backend and its complete database, according to him.
The student had intimated the university about the same twice after which the issue was resolved. The then vice chancellor of the university, Mridul Hazarika, had also appreciated the ethical hacker for intimating university authorities about the issue.