By 63SATS Cybertech News Desk
When headlines scream of over 100 cyberattacks in a month targeting India’s digital backbone—from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Election Commission—panic is often the default response.
But CloudSEK’s recent analysis of hacktivist campaigns across May 2025 urges a different reaction: pause, investigate, and verify.
Despite the noise, the reality behind the barrage of claimed cyber intrusions by hacktivist groups reveals more bravado than breach.
The data—backed by deep verification—shows minimal impact, negligible downtime, and repackaged information being touted as fresh exploits. Yet, as these loud, chaotic hacktivist theatrics take center stage, the more covert and dangerous adversary—APT36—continues to operate under the radar, launching precision cyber-espionage operations that are far more damaging.
Inflated Numbers, Deflated Impact: The Anatomy of the Hacktivist Claims
In May 2025 alone, CloudSEK tracked five major hacktivist groups that collectively claimed responsibility for over 100 attacks targeting Indian digital assets—ranging from websites of state institutions to financial, educational, and healthcare systems.
The Leading Groups and Their Claims:
Nation Of Saviors: 32 alleged attacks, including claims against the CBI and ECI.
KAL EGY 319: 31 website defacements focused on education and healthcare institutions.
SYLHET GANG-SG: 19 claims, notably targeting NIC and state judiciary portals.
Electronic Army Special Forces & Affiliates: 18 attacks, centered around law enforcement and courts.
Vulture: 16 attacks, some in collaboration with other groups, including claimed disruptions to the PMO and President’s websites.
Yet, on verification, most of these attacks were either:
- Superficial DDoS attempts, with downtime under five minutes.
- Website defacements with no persistent footprint.
- Repackaged data leaks, with content already in the public domain or previously compromised.
Reality Check: Key Debunked Claims
NIC Data Leak
Groups claimed to have exfiltrated 247 GB of sensitive NIC data. A sample released—1.5 GB—contained nothing more than marketing files and publicly accessible media, debunking any narrative of a critical breach.
Election Commission Breach
The widely publicized breach by “Team Azrael – Angel of Death®” was actually recycled 2023 voter data. The group misrepresented it as a fresh attack, exploiting public concerns about electoral data.
KAL EGY 319’s Defacement Blitz
Their claim of defacing 40 websites remains unverified. The allegedly compromised portals were fully functional with no visible traces of unauthorized modifications.
DDoS on PMO and Ministries
A coordinated campaign claimed disruption of top government sites between May 7-8. But no significant service outages or performance dips were observed on the platforms, including PMO, President’s office, and key Ministries.
Judicial System Leak by SYLHET GANG-SG
The Andhra Pradesh High Court breach touted 1 million FIRs and case details leaked. In reality, it consisted of publicly available metadata, with some hashed credentials—a security issue, yes, but not the catastrophic breach it was claimed to be.
Theatrics over Threat: Why Hacktivist Tactics Lack Teeth
Many of these campaigns rely on psychological warfare rather than actual system compromise. Screenshots of brief outages, exaggerated timelines, and old data dressed as new all form part of a playbook that’s remained largely unchanged for years. Most use basic DDoS tools or exploit vulnerabilities in low-value targets. Their goal? Media mileage and public disruption—not deep access or destruction.
CloudSEK researchers note that while vigilance is necessary, standard DDoS mitigation techniques and cyber hygiene are enough to neutralize such low-level attacks.
Analysis: Separating Signal from Noise
- Key Takeaways from the CloudSEK Report:
- 95% of hacktivist claims were unverifiable or exaggerated.
- Only 2-3 incidents involved potential security risks (e.g., leaked password hashes or unpatched vulnerabilities).
- APT36’s espionage campaign is the real concern, bypassing public visibility to achieve targeted objectives.
- Social media has become the new battleground, where perception is weaponized as much as malware.
The true threat lies not in the screen captures of website outages, but in the stealthy implants of adversarial malware—silent, invisible, and far more dangerous.
