All’s gay with e-governance

All’s gay with e-governance
Hackers Turn BATF Site Into Porn Haunt
The Times of India

Bangalore: Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) may be on the back foot. But its homepage — www.blrforward.org — has gone a little forward. Prosaic data has been supplanted by porn.

Log on to www.karnataka.gov.in/urbandevelopment and get on to its link on BATF. Be ready for the hidden agenda and sleazy tasks popping up.

BATF’s homepage is an indicator to e-governance. Though all government departments have their home pages on the Net, there is no technology to check the existence of the website.

Ironically, none in the government, including the BATF, are aware that the site has been hacked.

A former BATF member said the site has not been renewed for a long time as the organisation has stopped functioning. The BATF, which now ceases to exit, has closed down its office on Alexandria Street. Its other site www.batf.org still contains general information about the organisation and various projects carried out.

“We are not aware of this development as the site was not renewed and was defunct. Some hackers must have re-directed the page to their porn site. It is up to the government to keep tabs on its URL,’’ the member said.

Though hacking is big business, the hackers always eye defunct sites to gain mileage for their web pages, an expert in information sciences said.

The government, however, is unaware. According to officials, the webpages are upgraded often in terms of the data — reports, circulars, notifications, projects or information to the public. But a routine check on the links to other sites is not carried out. “This is a stray case and it has happened with none other than BATF. We will rectify the error,’’ officials said.