ISLAMABAD: A group by the name of ‘Pakistan Cyber Force’ on Monday hacked an Indian news channel ABP News to ran pro-Pakistan Army content, state media reported on Monday, a day after multiple Pakistani news channels were also hacked.
Pakistan Cyber Force launched a “retaliatory attack” by hacking Hindi-language news channel ABP News, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said. It added that excerpts of speeches by Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir ran on the Indian news channel as well as other content related to the Pakistan Army.
“Pakistan Cyber Force launched a retaliatory attack on India with slogans of Pakistan Zindabad started echoing on an Indian channel,” Radio Pakistan said.
The development takes place a day after prominent Pakistani news channel, Geo News, was hacked just as its 9 p.m. bulletin was about to begin.
Geo Managing Director Azhar Abbas confirmed the breach on Sunday, saying that the news channel was facing repeated hacking attempts since 24 hours by “unknown elements” trying to disrupt its transmission.
“For some time now, Geo News’ broadcast has been continuously disrupted,” he wrote on X. “The channel’s screen was hacked and an inappropriate message was aired.”
He distanced Geo News from the messages that were displayed on the channel, urging authorities to launch an investigation and hold elements responsible for the breach to account.
Pakistani English news website Express Tribune reported that other than Geo News, other local channels such as ARY News and SAMAA were also hacked. It said messages critical of the Pakistani military and its leadership were displayed during the broadcasts.
“In addition to hijacking broadcasts, several Pakistani news channels’ websites were allegedly used to run Google advertisement campaigns in support of Mossad,” Express Tribune said.
The development takes place as tensions in the Middle East surged on Saturday after the US and Israel launched joint attacks against Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A wave of cyber-enabled operations took place early Saturday morning alongside the coordinated US-Israel strikes on targets across Iran, international news agency Reuters reported, citing cybersecurity experts and observers.
It said multiple Irani news websites were hacked to display various messages. BadeSaba, an Iranian religious calendar app with more than 5 million downloads, was also hacked and used to display messages telling users, “It’s time for reckoning” and urging armed forces to give up their weapons.
