Mumbai: Even as the country is still reeling from OpsPatuk, the recent cyber attack launched by DragonForce, the Malaysia-based hacker group is gearing up for a celebration of its one-year anniversary in cyberspace. Unsurprisingly, OpsPatuk is one of the themes of its celebrations this year and DragonForce had called on its members and supporters to further target India as part of the festivities.
A pro-Palestine ‘hacktivist’ group, DragonForce launched a series of cyber attacks against Indian websites and users as revenge for suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad. Hundreds of websites were hacked and defaced, after which DragonForce started hacking servers and leaking personal data of Indians.
Over the last three days, DragonForce posted two messages on their dark web domain, both of which have been accessed by the Free Press Journal. Both messages, written in Malay, outline the activities that DragonForce will be organising as part of its celebration for completing one year on the dark web. DragonForce dark web domain was started on June 11, 2021. It now has over 13,000 members participating in more than 11,000 discussion forums.
The first activity pertains to a video sharing competition on TikTok, a popular platform for sharing short videos.
“All participants are given the choice of making videos related to OpsBedil or OpsPatuk. Only these two themes are allowed in the video content. You are also required to display only authentic content or info without being exaggerated with false info. This competition is open to all members of the DFM forum and also all Malaysians,” one of the messages reads.
Hackers routinely share videos of their hacks, displaying all the steps they took while doing the job, and these videos are known as ‘Proof of Concept’ videos. OpsBedil was a similar cyber attack launched by Dragonforce against Israel last year.
The message goes on to provide relevant hashtags to be used in the videos, specifies the dates on which the videos have to be posted and promises attractive prizes to the winners. This is being interpreted as another open call to all hackers to target Indian websites and servers and post evidence of their exploits.
Interestingly, DragonForce also seems to have an ‘esport’ or online sports division, where it lets online gamer play under its aegis. The second message posted by DragonForce invites gamer groups to participate in a PUBG tournament next month. PUBG, or Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, is a massively popular mobile game.
“The group that wins this competition will be absorbed and become a player for DragonForce Esport for the PUBGM division. If you are interested, make sure each member of your group registers first on the dragonforce.io forum,” DragonForce’s post reads.
