The official website of Andhra University has reportedly been hacked by a Pakistani hacker on Monday night, April 10. It displayed Pakistani slogans for a few hours until authorities restored it. When the users logged onto the varsity’s website andhrauniversity.edu.in on April 11, they were shocked to see a black and green page that displayed provocative slogans. ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Free Kashmir’ were flashing on the page.  The sources are claiming that the website was targeted by a Pakistani hacker Muhammad Bilal who have been accused in the past for maligning the websites of several sites related to the Indian government.

As per media reports a message was also posted on the hacked website. The message quoted Act number 45 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860 Act, which said that the Act shall extend to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. “This institutionalised impunity with which the killings of civilians by military and police forces in Jammy and Kashmir should be a source of shame for India which propagates to be a democracy. Kashmir does not want militarised governance. They just want freedom!” the message reads.

The Andhra University Vice-Chancellor G Nageswara Rao was quoted in media reports saying, “Soon after finding that the website was hacked, we have taken steps for rectifying the problem with the help of cyber experts.” But this is not the first time the AU website has come under cyber attack. As per earlier reports, the University’s website has been hacked at least 3 to 4 times in the last few years. The Vice-Chancellor further added, “Such incidents happened last year and two years back also. Though we have been protecting the site with firewall, it seems, the hackers are trying new technologies.”

Media reports suggest that the university has two servers, one is inside the campus and the other one is situated out from a server hiring firm in Bengaluru. Authorities informed that the Bengaluru server was hacked and fortunately no important data was lost. Andhra University is located in Visakhapatnam and stands as one of the prestigious educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh carrying a rich heritage of educating several scholars in the past.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 11, 2018 11:59 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).