Ministry of Foreign Affairs website hacked, inaccesible in several countries

Published February 16, 2019
Visitors to the website from Holland, Australia, Britain, and Saudi Arabia are facing difficulty accessing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. — File
Visitors to the website from Holland, Australia, Britain, and Saudi Arabia are facing difficulty accessing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. — File

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website was attacked by hackers on Saturday, officials from the ministry said.

According to the spokesperson, Dr Mohammad Faisal, complaints were received by the ministry from various countries reporting that the website was inaccessible there.

"The IT team is currently occupied in thwarting the hackers' onslaught," he said.

The spokesperson added that the website is functioning without any issues in Pakistan. However, visitors to the website from Holland, Australia, Britain, and Saudi Arabia are facing difficulty opening it.

The attacks are believed to be of Indian origin, sources within the ministry told DawnNewsTV.

Cross-border hacking attacks have been sporadic yet common since at least 1998.

A team of Indian hackers had defaced the official website of PPP in June 2017. That same year, in December, the official website of Karachi police was hacked and defaced, allegedly by Indian hackers.

Hackers claiming to be from Pakistan defaced websites of seven Indian embassies, high commissions, and consulates in various countries with pro-Pakistan Army slogans in July 2016.

Prior to that, in 2015, Pakistani hackers attacked the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Raipur's website.

A year earlier, in 2014, the Lahore High Court's website was attacked and defaced by Indian hackers.

Opinion

Editorial

Killing fields
Updated 09 Jul, 2025

Killing fields

Israeli state seeks to ethnically cleanse the occupied territories of their Palestinian inhabitants, and forever obstruct the chances of a viable Palestinian state.
Crypto rush
09 Jul, 2025

Crypto rush

STEP by step, Pakistan is, at least on paper, moving closer to recognising, adopting and regulating cryptocurrencies...
Another plan
09 Jul, 2025

Another plan

FAILING to plan is planning to fail, as the old saying goes. This seems to have occurred in the case of Karachi, a...
Green tokenism
Updated 08 Jul, 2025

Green tokenism

Climate decisions must be based on facts, not politics — guided by independent science and open to public scrutiny.
Cotton decline
08 Jul, 2025

Cotton decline

PAKISTAN’S cotton economy is in a crisis. Production has fallen from a peak of 14m bales 10 years ago to 5.5m ...
Pet problems
08 Jul, 2025

Pet problems

PAKISTANIS’ obsession with exotic pets keeps ending in tragedy. Incidents like the recent lion attack in a Lahore...