Hackers have field day with Naidu

A hacker revealed details of caretaker Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu emails and official engagements, now being investigated by red-faced officials.

On Tuesday, officials decided Naidu's network had to be firewalled to allow access only to specified addresses.

The IT department also asked Naidu's chief information officer Ganta Subba Rao to probe technical aspects of the hacking of Naidu's server and suggest ways to prevent it again, the principal secretary (information and technology) J C Mohanty said.

"The only possible way is to erect a firewall and close various ports on the server. But, this will not stop professional hackers from entering the network," officials said here.

The mail server is licensed for 2,000 users, but the number went up to 2,500 and caused problems in installing proper security features in the network.

For almost six months hackers, including in Pakistan, have been hacking into Naidu's mail server and downloading his schedules for 20 days at a time. Hackers knew full details of a visit to Kurnool long before it his security staff knew about it. They knew he was scheduled to attend a wedding reception at a hotel in Hyderabad on December 17!

They knew he was to have a video conference with the prime minister on credit cards for artisans. They knew far more than even Telugu Desam Party friendly journalists of Naidu's planned visits. The hackers also had access to busines proposals sent by IT and other firms to Naidu and the CMO's responses. "It was not difficult at all. It took me 12 hours to access the server and download," Gaurav Kumar said, confessing he got into Naidu's server by accident.

He said he found Naidu's internet protocol (IP) numbers in a Pakistani hacker's server! "I was hacking a Pakistani hacker's system when I noticed some IP addresses which were Indian. I probed those addresses and I landed in Naidu's server. The server is completely open without even minimum security features!"