Cyber Incident Victim: Government of Pakistan
Date:
Aug 2014
Location:
Pakistan
Summary
Hackers targeted the Government of Pakistan's online infrastructure through defacement and DDoS attacks, disrupting multiple high-profile government and military websites. The official portal was compromised with altered content mocking Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other leaders, replacing official imagery with caricatures like Shrek and displaying messages condemning alleged corruption. Anonymous claimed responsibility for coordinated takedowns of sites including the Army's recruitment portal and provincial government platforms, citing retaliation against police violence during protests over disputed elections. The incidents collectively aimed to support demonstrators demanding leadership resignations by disrupting digital services and disseminating anti-government content.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 3 techniques |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
In late August 2014, Anonymous launched coordinated cyber attacks against Pakistani government and military websites in response to police violence against protesters in Islamabad. The hacktivist group announced its campaign via Twitter accounts @AnonymousGlobo and @YourAnonGlobal on August 30, explicitly linking the attacks to demonstrations against alleged election rigging by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government. The attacks employed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) techniques that temporarily disabled multiple high-profile websites, including the Pakistan Army's recruitment portal, the Punjab provincial government's official website, the Pakistan Meteorological Department, and the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution. These disruptions occurred amid street protests that had turned deadly, with reports indicating seven fatalities and seventy injuries from police actions against demonstrators. Anonymous framed the cyber attacks as retaliation for state violence, warning through social media that additional targeting would continue unless the government changed its approach to handling dissent.
The cyber campaign escalated on September 1 when attackers successfully compromised Pakistan's central government web portal (pakistan.gov.pk), replacing official content with anti-government messages and satirical imagery. Hackers defaced the site with a fabricated statement attributed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that sarcastically confessed to systemic corruption and violence against citizens. They altered the Prime Minister's profile picture to an image of the animated character Shrek and posted derisive cartoons depicting Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif, and former President Asif Ali Zardari. This intrusion occurred shortly after Anonymous had publicly declared intentions to target additional government digital assets, with the defacement specifically mocking administrative leaders while supporting protesters' demands for Sharif's resignation. The attack rendered the national government portal inaccessible at the time of initial media reporting, compounding earlier disruptions to military and provincial websites from the preceding DDoS strikes. No official statements regarding restoration efforts or security responses were documented in contemporaneous reports of the incidents.