The Hindu Business Line : Indian Web site defacements down

THE number of Indian Web sites defaced across popular domain names like `.com' and `.org' dropped to 218 during February compared to a whopping 798 in the previous month, according to data recorded by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-in).

As per the statistics by Cert-in, the maximum number of defacements during February were recorded in `.com' domain.

At least 146 defacements were witnessed in this domain in February, against 636 `.com' defacement cases recorded in January - while 31 defacements pertained to `.org' Web sites.

In January, the total number of defacement incidents reported in the `.org' category stood at 70.

Defacement incidents were also reported in other domains such as ".net, .biz, .co.in, .firm.in, .info" and `.nic.in' domains.

Cert-in recorded at least 15 defacements in .net space in February, against 62 in January.

Four defacement attempts were reported in `.biz' domain, at least 10 in `.co.in' domain and three in `.info' domain.

During January, the defacement incidents had shot up to 798, primarily on account of mass defacement attempts detected on January 2, January 12, January 19.

These attempts alone had accounted for 699 site defacements. In contrast, the number of total defacements in December 2004 stood at a mere 49, which included 21 `.com' Web sites, eight `.co.in' sites and five `.ac.in' sites, besides some in `.gov.in' and `.org.in' domains.

Sources said that while Cert-in attempted to track .com Web sites, the actual incidents of defacement in the domain may be far more than that captured in the official statistics, as it is relatively difficult to establish that a site in `.com' domain is an Indian Web site.

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