Cyber war after Pahalgam carnage as over 1 million attacks

India’s cybersecurity perimeter has been put to the test after the Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir that left 26 civilians dead. Maharashtra Cyber—the cybercrime division of the state police—has reported over 1 million cyberattack attempts on Indian networks in the aftermath of the assault. The surge, which began just hours after the incident on April 22, has been linked to hacking collectives operating out of Pakistan, the Middle East, Indonesia, and Morocco.

“These aren’t isolated data breaches or amateur pranks. We’re looking at systematic, high-volume cyber offensives with a potential ideological backing,” said Yashasvi Yadav, Additional Director General of Police, Maharashtra Cyber Department.

The geography of digital aggression

While Pakistan remains the primary origin point for the attacks, Maharashtra Cyber’s findings expand the scope of concern. Groups from regions far beyond South Asia—including Morocco and Indonesia—have also been active participants. Several of these hacker factions have publicly claimed to represent Islamist causes, suggesting that the Pahalgam terror strike may have served as a rallying cry for ideologically aligned cyber actors.

This marks a departure from the traditional India–Pakistan cyber spat, morphing instead into a broader conflict zone in cyberspace. It also underscores a worrying trend: terrorist violence on the ground triggering coordinated digital offensives globally.

Multi-tiered targets, single-point agenda

The cyberattacks have so far focused on disrupting Indian websites, extracting user data, and injecting inflammatory propaganda. Public-facing platforms—such as education, housing, and recruitment websites connected to the armed forces—were the first to be probed, as seen in the earlier cyberattack attempts against Army Public Schools and the Indian Air Force Placement Organisation.

These attacks are designed not only to break through digital walls but to sow confusion and fear, particularly in the civilian domain.

Officials noted that many of the attempted breaches relied on common cyber tactics like DDoS attacks, phishing emails, and malware-laced PDF files masquerading as government communication. However, the speed and volume of the offensive point to a higher degree of organization.

Defense stands, but warnings multiply

While many attacks were successfully intercepted, the strain on India’s cyber infrastructure has prompted a formal advisory from Maharashtra Cyber. The alert, circulated across government departments, urged immediate strengthening of firewall systems, patching of software vulnerabilities, and reevaluation of third-party access points.

“It’s a wake-up call. The scale of these attacks demands national coordination and vigilance at every level of our digital ecosystem,” said an official involved in the advisory’s drafting.

India’s national cyber command, including agencies like CERT-In and NCIIPC, has been monitoring the situation closely. Thus far, no critical infrastructure or classified systems have been compromised, but the need for constant surveillance has become paramount.

The bigger battlefield

This digital barrage comes amid a broader uptick in tensions between India and Pakistan. Cross-border firing has resumed across the Line of Control, and social media has seen a spike in hate campaigns and propaganda videos. On both sides, hacktivists have stepped in to wage symbolic battles. While pro-India hackers targeted Pakistani courts and police databases, the other side retaliated with religiously charged messages and defacements of Indian educational websites.

As cyberwarfare emerges as the new frontier in geopolitical rivalry, India finds itself at the center of a digitally driven conflict—one where ideology, politics, and technology collide.

The message is loud and clear: borders may be monitored, but cyberspace remains a battlefield without fences.