Breaches and incidents
Indian government domains (India): 100+ gov.in, nic.in and ac.in sites cloaked to push gambling
MediaNama, citing FalconFeeds, reported more than 100 compromised government and public-sector domains, including central ministries, a High Court, a...
- Disclosed
- Verification
- Reported by a reputable outlet, citing the company
What happened
- MediaNama, citing FalconFeeds, reported more than 100 compromised government and public-sector domains, including central ministries, a High Court, a constitutional audit body, a land registration system, police and tax portals, a diplomatic mission and top academic institutions.
- Technique: server-side cloaking: Googlebot is served keyword-stuffed gambling pages (sometimes in Thai), mobile visitors from Google search are redirected to offshore betting/casino apps, while admins and desktop users see the normal page or a 404; rewrite rules and injected Google Search Console verification tokens claim the domains. Earlier waves: more than 90 gov.in sites including ICAR in January 2025 and 20+ Maharashtra sites (see the Bombay High Court entry below).
- Attacker: unnamed betting/SEO operators.
- Response: no MeitY or CERT-In statement reported.