CloudSEK reveals a dramatic spike in hacktivist operations against Indian infrastructure, with Palestine supporters and religious ideologues driving over 4,000 attacks on critical sectors throughout 2024.
India’s digital landscape is under siege from an unprecedented wave of hacktivist attacks, with over 4,000 incidents recorded between January 2024 and January 2025. According to a comprehensive analysis by cybersecurity firm CloudSEK, these politically motivated cyber assaults have systematically targeted critical sectors including education, government, technology, and healthcare.
The report reveals a strategic pattern to these digital protests, with website defacement and data breaches emerging as the preferred weapons of choice. These tactics offer hacktivists maximum visibility with minimal resources, creating lasting evidence of their activities rather than temporary disruptions.
Most striking is the concentration of attacks around symbolically important dates—India’s Independence Day saw more than 200 incidents between August 15-17 alone, demonstrating sophisticated coordination and timing to maximize impact.
Behind these attacks, the data points to clear ideological drivers: 65.5% of incidents were motivated by support for Palestine, followed by religious ideologies (13.3%) and broader anti-India sentiment (12.6%). This suggests India is being targeted not just for its own policies, but as part of larger geopolitical narratives.
The most prolific players in this digital battlefield are hacktivist groups BondowosoBlackHat and Z-BL4CK-H4T, whose technical capabilities and persistent campaigns have established them as formidable threats.
Educational institutions bore the brunt of these attacks, accounting for nearly a third of all incidents, likely due to their expansive digital infrastructure and lower security investments compared to financial or government entities.
As India moves deeper into 2025, CloudSEK warns that hacktivist activity will continue evolving in both sophistication and frequency. With geopolitical tensions showing no signs of abating, organizations must proactively enhance their cybersecurity posture through threat intelligence, defense mechanisms, and rapid response protocols.
In the digital age, ideological battles are increasingly being fought not on streets, but on servers.
Source: CloudSEK
