Uttarakhand: Cyberattack hits 10 govt websites, including CM's Relief Fund; ITDA restores services within hours
Dehradun, August 2
A cyberattack targeted the websites of 10 Uttarakhand government departments, including the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, on Saturday, forcing authorities to temporarily take them offline.
After several hours of restoration efforts, the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) successfully restored the affected websites using backup data.
ITDA Director Alok Pandey said that several departmental websites were hit by a malware attack, but the situation was brought under control within a short period.
Following the malware attack, ITDA's cybersecurity team immediately launched a response. As a precautionary measure, the affected websites were taken offline. Since secure backups had been maintained at the state data centre following the major cyberattack in 2024, ITDA was able to restore services after a few hours of intensive work.
The departments whose websites were affected include the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, Public Works Department (PWD), Food and Civil Supplies Department, Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA), State Tax Department, ESIC, Transport Department, and Tourism Department.
This is the first significant cyber incident since Uttarakhand's largest cyberattack in October 2024, when nearly 90 government websites, including the Chief Minister's Helpline, were knocked offline for several days. ITDA had gradually restored those services after extensive recovery efforts.
Officials believe that the strengthened cybersecurity measures implemented after the 2024 incident helped prevent Saturday's attack from causing more widespread disruption.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Ye toh bahut serious baat hai! 😰 CM Relief Fund website hacked - this is where people donate money for disaster victims. Imagine if someone redirected those donations for malicious purposes. ITDA needs to explain what security audits they're doing regularly. Backup is good but prevention is better.
As someone who works in IT, I can say this kind of attack is becoming common everywhere, not just in India. The fact they restored service in hours is actually impressive. Most organizations take days. But they need to identify who did this and why - was it a ransomware attempt, data theft, or just mischief?
Honestly, I'm not surprised. Government websites in India have been behind the curve on security for years. The 2024 attack should have been a wake-up call, and sure, they improved, but why are these critical services still hosted on vulnerable platforms? We need cyber insurance, regular penetration testing, and most importantly - trained staff who know how to handle these situations without panicking.
Thankful that ITDA restored services quickly 🙏 But this raises a bigger question - how prepared are other state governments? Uttarakhand has 10 websites down and managed to recover. But what about the critical infrastructure? Water, electricity, transport - if these are compromised, it's not just about websites going offline. Need central government to step in with a national cybersecurity framework for all states.
Does anyone know which specific data was at risk? CM Relief Fund has sensitive donor information and transaction records. Though restored, there should be a proper forensic investigation to ensure no data was exfiltrated. Also, is there any
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.