India’s second largest Internet service provider BSNL-owned ‘Sancharnet. in’ server has been hacked. Till date, however, BSNL authorities have not been able to find any way out. BSNL officials admitted that it was one of the largest cyber crimes they ever faced and started taking precautionary measures at all levels. However, they could not assure prevention of the massive monitory loss to its 25 lakh subscribers. The problem was first noticed on April 11, when all Sancharnet users received a promotional mail offering a CD named ‘Impressindia List’ containing 25 lakh Indian e-mail addresses and a mass mailing software costing Rs 630. The list can be used to send mass mails for advertisement purpose. Surprisingly, the mail was delivered by the ‘mail administrator (MA)’, the top most mailing control authority of Sancharnet, though it was generated by someone else. Since then, the Sancharnet users started receiving unsolicited mails from various sources, all coming through the Sancharnet MA, with increasing frequency. After detecting it last Friday at Siliguri Internet node, a vital point in the National Internet Backbone, the incharge, S. Chakraborty, immediately alerted Delhi. According to him, the hackers broke the software security of the MA computer and took out the entire address list of Sancharnet users. Full Story
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