‘Doraemon!!!! Pick up the call’: UPSC website hacked with Doraemon cartoon image, restored later

The Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) official website got hacked on Monday evening. The homepage of the website, managed by the Central government showed the picture of famous cartoon character ‘Doraemon’ with an animated heart on it. The picture also had a text layover on it, saying “Doraemon!!!! Pick up the call”. It also had one more caption at the bottom of the page - “I. M. STEWPEED”. The Doraemon image also had the cartoon’s title track playing in the background.

Notably, the website was hacked around the same time the admit cards of the Mains exams were supposed to be released. The website was restored on Tuesday morning, September 11.

The reports of the UPSC website being hacked surfaces after various users took to social media to report the same. Most of them were candidates of UPSC exam who stumbled on the Doraemon image while they went to the site for the latest information on the civil services examination. A few of them even tagged PM Modi’s Twitter handle with their tweets, highlighting the gravity of the situation. A lot more condemned the hacking and asked for stronger security measures against cybersecurity threat.

Meanwhile, a Twitter user has claimed to have traced the hacker. The user claimed to have traced the hacker with the help of the background of the Doraemon image. The background of the Doraemon screen showed a person sitting with his back to the camera, looking towards a statue. The user, Somdev Sangwan, said that the reverse image search provided him with substantial clues about the hacker.

On a related note, the admit cards for the Mains of UPSC have been released, which can be downloaded from UPSC’s official website - upsc.gov.in or upsconline.nic.in. The UPSC Mains will be conducted on October 1, 2018. Out of 3 lakh aspirants who sat for the Prelims examination held on June 3, 2018, 10,500 will sit for the Mains.