What’s the story?
The official website of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was the subject of a cyber attack yesterday. While a Federation Cup group stage match between Aizawl FC and Churchill Brothers was going on, the official AIFF website was taken over by Pakistani hackers, who left anti-India messages on the website’s landing page.
The messages were about Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is under arrest in Pakistan on suspicion of alleged espionage and sabotage activities against the country, as well as derogatory ones directed at India.
The context
The AIFF is the governing body of Indian football and it is responsible for the growth and development of football in the 100th ranked country in the world. This hacking of the AIFF’s website comes as a major surprise since it is one of the most prominent sports bodies of India.
The incident happened between 8 PM and 9 PM last night, causing an uproar among Indian football fans. Here are some of the reactions from last night.
The heart of the matter
The hackers, who left a footnote that read: “Greetz to:::::Pak Cyber Ghosts | Pak Cyber Attackers | Pak Cyber Thunders | Pak Cyber Skullz and All Pakistani Hackers”, can be assumed to be from Pakistan since they posted vile messages concerning India’s demands for the release of Jadhav.
The hackers also posted insults to India and Indian people. Jadhav’s confession of being a RAW spy came to the world’s notice when a video was released a month after his arrest.
What’s next?
The technical team of AIFF solved the issue within hours and the website is now running and functional. The reports of yesterday’s Federation Cup matches and India Under-17s’ friendly against Sporting Lisbon were readable and uploaded on the site this morning.
Author’s take
Quite how is Kulbhushan Jadhav connected to Indian football is a mystery, but hackers from Pakistan have made their intentions known by getting into the official website of Indian football’s governing body and posting uncalled for messages on its home page.
