IRCTC website hacked, information of lakhs feared stolen.

Posted by : Sivapriya Thursday, May 5, 2016

The website of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was hacked and the personal information of around 1 crore users is feared to be leaked, said reports on Thursday. The official website of the Indian Railways, IRCTC is the biggest travel e commerce website in India and lakhs of transactions are conducted by the site everyday. With the reported leak, safety and security questions about the customers’ personal information like PAN card numbers and other details have arisen.

The hacking occurred late on Tuesday night and the site has now been brought under control. But the fears of personal information of thousands of customers being misused still remain. A high-level meeting took place in Delhi regarding the hacking. Senior IRCTC officials discussed what measures could be taken to ascertain how far the hackers had gone. Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, AK Manocha, Managing Director of IRCTC revealed that so far, there has been no complaint from any customer, but Delhi police’s cyber cell has been informed.

Customers have to fill in important information for online reservations and when stolen, the same can be used by miscreants to create forged documents. ”The data is a valuable asset and can be sold to corporations who may use it for targeting potential consumers,” an IRCTC source was quoted as saying by TOI. Personal data of the users like email ids and mobile numbers which are also filled in, while making online bookings, can be used by telemarketers for promoting their respective products or services and spamming the customers with unwanted messages.

However, sources said that it was unlikely that bank details or credit card details are leaked since the website, since the payment gateway takes the customer out of the website during the online payment. Once the user is directed to the bank site, there are less chances of information getting leaked as these have better security. The hacking occurred even after the Railways reportedly spent Rs. 100 crores last year, for the upgrading of the website.