ISRO commercial arm Antrix's website hacked?

Chennai, July 12: Indian space agency ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd's website was found to be hacked, said a cyber security expert on Sunday.

"The Antrix Corporation's website certainly seemed to be hacked a couple of days back. And the company has pulled down the site. It was hacked in 2011 too. It seems the company has not taken sufficient security measures," Cyber Security and Privacy Foundation founder J. Prasanna told IANS over phone from Bengaluru.

Officials of Antrix Corporation and the Indian Space Research Organisation were not available for comments despite several attempts by IANS.

On Friday, Antrix Corporation's chairman-cum-managing director V.S.Hegde told IANS that the company's website is being revamped and annual reports would be uploaded on the site.

According to Prasanna, the link given to a Chinese shop could be a diversionary tactic to give a China angle to the hacking.

He said for hackers of government websites and public sector undertakings, Friday is the prime day as the next two days are holidays.

While websites are the public face of the organisations, government undertakings do not bother much about their security, maintenance and updation.

The Rs.1,850 crore revenue Antrix markets the satellite launch services and other space data for global customers. Incidentally, it was on Friday that ISRO had launched five British satellites.

IANS