40+ Hacktivist Groups Wage Cyberwar On Indian Critical Infrastructure

Published Date: May 13, 2025

Category: ShadowOpsIntel

A large-scale, coordinated cyber campaign targeting Indian infrastructure and public services has emerged following Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025. This cyber offensive involves 40+ pro-Pakistan hacktivist groups. The campaign signifies the convergence of geopolitical conflict with digital warfare, blending physical military strikes with simultaneous cyber offensives, primarily aimed at undermining national morale, disrupting critical services, and generating global propaganda.

Severity Level: High

THREAT OVERVIEW:

Campaign Codename: #OpIndia
Trigger Event: Pahalgam terror attack (April 22, 2025)
Peak Activity: May 6–7, 2025
Total Claimed Attacks (2025): 256+ attacks by 40+ groups
Threat Actors and Hacktivist Alliances

Primary Groups Involved:

THREAT ACTOR	DESCRIPTION	KEY ACTIVITIES
Keymous+	most aggressive and operationally persistent actors	Attacks on healthcare, municipal infrastructure, DDoS, web defacement
AnonSec	High-profile group with political motives	Defacement of PMO, Election Commission, NJDG; future threats to military
RipperSec	DDoS-as-a-service provider	Responsible for 30%+ DDoS attacks; used MegaMedusa tool
Mr. Hamza, Sylhet Gang, Vulture (Iran), Red Wolf Cyber, Nation of Saviors	Regional and ideological affiliations	Multiple attack claims; alliances formed post Operation Sindoor
Mysterious Team Pakistan, Islamic Hacker Army, Rabbit Cyber Team	Ideological motivations; real-time retaliation	DDoS & propaganda

Attack Methods

DDoS Attacks (Most Prevalent – Over 70% of Cases)

Volumetric: NTP, DNS, CLDAP, NetBIOS amplification.
Application-Layer: HTTP Flood, HTTP POST, RUDY (slow POST), TCP floods.
Tooling: MegaMedusa (Node.js-based), botnets, and public DDoS tools.

Web Defacement (~36%)

Used “Alone injector.php” exploiting PHP upload vulnerabilities.
Messaging included political slogans, anti-India content, Operation Sindoor retaliation banners.

Data Breach Attempts (~8%) – Often Psychological

Claims by groups like Team Insane Pakistan, but most lacked verifiable evidence.
Designed to induce panic and signal deep penetration.

Unauthorized Access Probing (~3%)

Login portals, judicial platforms, and healthcare logins targeted for credential harvesting.
Infrastructure and Entities Targeted

Key Targets in India:

SECTOR	SPECIFIC ENTITIES
Government	PMO, GeM, NIC, Election Commission, NJDG, PESB
Defense	Ministry of Defence, Indian Army, Navy, Air Force portals
Telecom	BSNL (attacked multiple times), Indian Railways
Energy	PowerGrid Corporation of India
Finance	NSE, BSE (international access restricted), IOB, Bank of Baroda
Healthcare	Hospitals and public health portals
Education	Nccc News, UIDAI, academic institutions

Recommendations:

Implement perimeter controls/firewall rules to filter large or fragmented ICMP packets and UDP reflection/amplification attacks:
Restrict ICMP type echo-request with length 1501:65535.
Restrict UDP traffic on port 123 and block packets larger than 50 bytes.
Restrict UDP traffic from source port 53 and block packets larger than 512 bytes (DNS reflection/amplifcation attacks).
Restrict UDP traffic on port 1900 (SSDP).
Restrict UDP traffic on port 11211 (Memcached).
Restrict UDP traffic on port 19 (Chargen).
Restrict UDP traffic on port 389 (LDAP). If LDAP doesn’t require UDP, disable it on your server.
Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) controls to mitigate bot-originated traffic.
Deploy TCP 3-way handshake verification controls to combat TCP-SYN flood attacks.
Ensure your cloud volumetric DDoS monitoring thresholds are properly configured to detect unusual traffic spikes in the above-mentioned protocols/services.
Evaluate your DDoS incident response process (perhaps with a tabletop exercise).
In the case of on-premise/inline DDoS protection solutions, make sure to enable on-demand HTTP authentication controls in case of abnormal HTTP requests.
Secure your Web Server Configuration by disabling unnecessary features or modules (mod_autoindex, mod_status).
Ensure directory listing is disabled to prevent attackers from viewing sensitive files.
Use strong SSL/TLS encryption for secure connections (preferably TLS 1.2 or 1.3).
If using a CMS (e.g., WordPress, Joomla), ensure it is properly configured and secured.
Use security plugins/modules designed to detect and block malicious activity (e.g., Wordfence for WordPress).
Regularly change default admin passwords and usernames.
Use IP whitelisting to limit access to the admin panel or backend and implement MFA for all administrative accounts and critical user roles.

Source:

https://cyberxtron.com/blog/india-under-cyber-siege-40-hacktivist-groups-joined-hands-and-targeting-key-sectors-post-operation-sindoor-6500
https://www.radware.com/security/threat-advisories-and-attack-reports/escalating-hacktivist-attacks-amidst-india-pakistan-tensions/
https://cyble.com/blog/india-experience-hacktivist-group-activity/
https://nsfocusglobal.com/two-battlegrounds-india-pakistan-conflicts-and-ddos-attacks/
https://www.cloudsek.com/blog/brief-disruptions-bold-claims-the-tactical-reality-behind-the-india-pakistan-hacktivist-surge

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