The website of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) handled by the government was hacked late yesterday, September 10, 2018. While access to the homepage; upsc.gov.in, the website instead read, “Doraemon!!!! Pick up the call,” with an image of the animated character giving an odd expression. The page further showed, “I.M. STEWPEED,” at the bottom and the Hindi title track of the cartoon played in the background. It was naturally witnessed by the UPSC aspirants who then tweeted the screenshots of the hacked website. At present, the web portal is kept under maintenance and is expected to run sooner.  The timetable for December’s UPSC IFS Mains Recruitment Exam 2018 Released. 

The content of the website is owned and managed by UPSC unlike other government sits which are generally controlled by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Twitter users even tagged the official handles of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Digital India, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and many experts requesting them to fix the website. Interestingly, the website hack happened on the day of the UPSC Recruitment 2018 application process began online. Fake Sagarmala Website! Shipping Ministry Warns Candidates Not to Get Mislead by False Job Openings. 

UPSC website hacked; Doraemon title track in Hindi plays on the background.

Although this is not the first time that hackers have targeted such popular websites. The official web portal of Andhra University was hacked in April showing Pakistani slogans for a few hours until the authorities restored it. In May, this year, Jamia Millia Islamia website jmi.ac.in was hacked thrice in a day, displaying a black screen which showed several messages such as, “Stuck by Faisal 1337,” “Pakistan Zindabad”, “Your Website Stamped By & Pak Cyber Attackers Team”, “Happy Birthday Pooja. Your love,” which was fixed later the same morning.

Meanwhile, the UPSC has released the timetable for the Indian Forest Service (IFS) 2018 main examination. Those who have cleared the prelims will appear in this exam this December. The qualified candidates need to fill a Detailed Application Form (DAF) in order to be eligible for the Mains 2018. Until the authorities fix the website; the candidates are recommended to keep their calm and visit the portal a bit later for further information.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 11, 2018 09:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).