ISLAMABAD: Hackers defaced part of the official website of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) — also known as the Met Office — on Saturday.

The `Farmers’ Weather’ section of the website appeared to be the primary target of the hackers, who also posted political slogans on the landing page. In addition, the ‘Daily Weather Report’ feature on the website was also inoperative on Saturday.

The hacker or hackers, identifying themselves as ‘Hunter Gujjar — Team Pak Cyber Activists’, posted the popular Pakistan Tehreek- Insaf slogan “Go Nawaz Go” on the website and left the mes­sage, “Pakistan Zin­dabad — Jago Pakistanio” (Long Live Pakistan — Wake up Pakistanis).

The PMD functions under the Aviation Division of the Cabinet Secretariat, which is headed by Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shujaat Azeem.

PMD Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Hanif told Dawn that hacking was an illegal act and a formal complaint had been lodged with the website operator.

“Our website operator is a government agency and they are working to mend the damage, but we have officially warned them their contract would be terminated if security measures were not placed to avoid such attacks in the future,” Dr Hanif said.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2015

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