Passengers worry over railway portal safety
By B Anbuselvan | Express News Service | Published: 29th December 2017 02:45 AM |
Last Updated: 29th December 2017 07:52 AM
CHENNAI: The arrest of two persons, including a CBI assistant programmer, by officials of CBI in Delhi, for their alleged involvement in selling illegal software to travel agents to book ‘tatkal’ tickets faster through IRCTC website has left rail passengers worried over safety of their personal records, including Aadhaar details.
According to CBI sources, Ajay Garg, a software programmer for CBI since 2012 had allegedly sold illegal software to book ‘tatkal’ tickets faster in IRCTC website to hundreds of travel agents across the country. He was supported by a travel agent Anil Kumar Gupta, who was also nabbed by CBI on Wednesday.
During ticket booking, the software would enable user to bypass the IRCTC captcha and bank OTP. In addition, it will also reduce the time gap set by IRCTC for generating PNR numbers. Thus, making bookings possible within 20 to 30 seconds. Hundreds of tickets can be booked at one go, said sources.
While the incident had solved the mystery as to how travel agents are able to get tickets for a train, many rail passengers raised concerns over the safety of IRCTC website and details of crores of passengers.
“At a time when government was forcing tatkal ticket booking through IRCTC by closing counters, safety of website must be ensured. How can an external software make an influence in the website of national transporter ? asked S.Mohan Ram, a former member of zonal railway users consultative committee, Southern railway.
He said lakhs of passengers personal details including Aadhaar had been uploaded in the website. Passengers feel insecure over possible misuse of the records, he said.
CBI inquiry revealed that Ajay Garg was a former employee of IT wing at IRCTC. He had sound knowledge on the vulnerability of IRCTC portal and developed a fake software to exploit it.
Passengers suspect that such software would have been sold to many travel agents in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry too. Despite waiting lists over 100 in IRCTC website for a long distance train, travel agents are able to sell confirmed tickets for the same train for excess fares in several congested routes, including Chennai - Kolkata, Chennai - Santrakachi, Chennai - New Delhi, Chennai - Coimbatore and Chennai - Tirunelveli.
“Earlier, IRCTC earmarked two percent berths for select travel agents who helped to increase revenue through other business. It was scrapped after 2010. But, they continue to book tatkal tickets ahead of rail passengers. Though such incidents happened openly, railway officials, RPF and Vigilance wing of railways remain mute spectators,” said a member of DRUCC, on the condition of anonymity.
The trend of train tickets getting booked in less than a minute was observed by many rail users in 2008. Though the issue was taken up with railway officials, it fell only on deaf ears, say passengers. K Baskar, a former member of Divisional Railway users consultative committees, Chennai said that in 2009, during rail users consultative meeting at Chennai a group of members raised suspicion over tatkal bookings through website in less than a minute when even the older version of IRCTC website was too slow.
IRCTC officials denied any possibility of misuse of passenger details.
By B Anbuselvan | Express News Service | Published: 29th December 2017 02:45 AM |
Last Updated: 29th December 2017 07:52 AM
CHENNAI: The arrest of two persons, including a CBI assistant programmer, by officials of CBI in Delhi, for their alleged involvement in selling illegal software to travel agents to book ‘tatkal’ tickets faster through IRCTC website has left rail passengers worried over safety of their personal records, including Aadhaar details.
According to CBI sources, Ajay Garg, a software programmer for CBI since 2012 had allegedly sold illegal software to book ‘tatkal’ tickets faster in IRCTC website to hundreds of travel agents across the country. He was supported by a travel agent Anil Kumar Gupta, who was also nabbed by CBI on Wednesday.
During ticket booking, the software would enable user to bypass the IRCTC captcha and bank OTP. In addition, it will also reduce the time gap set by IRCTC for generating PNR numbers. Thus, making bookings possible within 20 to 30 seconds. Hundreds of tickets can be booked at one go, said sources.
While the incident had solved the mystery as to how travel agents are able to get tickets for a train, many rail passengers raised concerns over the safety of IRCTC website and details of crores of passengers.
“At a time when government was forcing tatkal ticket booking through IRCTC by closing counters, safety of website must be ensured. How can an external software make an influence in the website of national transporter ? asked S.Mohan Ram, a former member of zonal railway users consultative committee, Southern railway.
He said lakhs of passengers personal details including Aadhaar had been uploaded in the website. Passengers feel insecure over possible misuse of the records, he said.
CBI inquiry revealed that Ajay Garg was a former employee of IT wing at IRCTC. He had sound knowledge on the vulnerability of IRCTC portal and developed a fake software to exploit it.
Passengers suspect that such software would have been sold to many travel agents in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry too. Despite waiting lists over 100 in IRCTC website for a long distance train, travel agents are able to sell confirmed tickets for the same train for excess fares in several congested routes, including Chennai - Kolkata, Chennai - Santrakachi, Chennai - New Delhi, Chennai - Coimbatore and Chennai - Tirunelveli.
“Earlier, IRCTC earmarked two percent berths for select travel agents who helped to increase revenue through other business. It was scrapped after 2010. But, they continue to book tatkal tickets ahead of rail passengers. Though such incidents happened openly, railway officials, RPF and Vigilance wing of railways remain mute spectators,” said a member of DRUCC, on the condition of anonymity.
The trend of train tickets getting booked in less than a minute was observed by many rail users in 2008. Though the issue was taken up with railway officials, it fell only on deaf ears, say passengers. K Baskar, a former member of Divisional Railway users consultative committees, Chennai said that in 2009, during rail users consultative meeting at Chennai a group of members raised suspicion over tatkal bookings through website in less than a minute when even the older version of IRCTC website was too slow.
IRCTC officials denied any possibility of misuse of passenger details.
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