As many as 2,770 Indian websites have been defaced by hackers in the first eight months of this year, according to estimates of the cyber security wing of the Department of Information Technology.

The period between January-August this year witnessed 2,770 breach of cyber security, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said in its latest report on hacking.

During the entire last year, 5,200 websites were hacked. Phishers or hackers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information such as user names, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Besides, 326 security incidents were reported to CERT-In from various national and international agencies in the first eight months of this year, CERT-In added.

Security-related incidents like phishing, unauthorised scanning, virus and worm under the malicious code category were reported, it said.

The e-commerce sector reported the largest number of phishing attacks in 2006, accounting for 76%. The other most targeted area is financial services which accounted for 24%.

PTI