'VSNL Web site hackers belong to Mysore engg college'

Kanchana Suggu in Bombay

Officials have reportedly identified the hackers who broke into the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited's Web site on the eve of Independence Day. The server was traced to an engineering college in Mysore, Karnataka.

"However, whether it is a single student or a group of students is not yet known," said Amitabh Kumar, VSNL's director (operations).

The VSNL homepage was hacked into at two places -- the 'Online Registration' and 'Online Renewal' link. The engineering college was identified by VSNL on the same day and an FIR was lodged with the Azad Maidan Police station in Bombay.

The case has since been handed over to the General Branch CID, Economic Offices Wing.

VSNL servers indicated that the hackers logged in at 6:15 p.m. and logged out at 8:41 p.m. As soon as the news of VSNL's hacking became public, speculation that foreign terrorists were responsible for the act started doing the rounds. But VSNL's finding has been contrary to this belief. "We are not surprised that this has been done by Indians. College students do indulge in such things," said Kumar.

The hackers also made an attempt to delete the history files by giving a 'set history off' command, but were unsuccessful in doing so because of incompatibility between the two systems.

Admitting that the whole incident was 'disconcerting', Kumar said that it is now up to the police to take appropriate action.

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