The Indian Railways sent out more than 350 tweets between 10am on Thursday and 7.00am on Friday, assuring users that its ticketing system had not been hacked and user data was safe.
“IRCTC website has not been hacked. Enquiry is being conducted regarding data theft,” read each tweet from @IRCTC_Ltd.
The Railways had to respond after news broke that the IRCTC had been hacked into and Twitter users began demanding answers about their data.
{{/usCountry}}The Railways had to respond after news broke that the IRCTC had been hacked into and Twitter users began demanding answers about their data.
{{/usCountry}}@krishashok tweeted asking for steps to control the alleged damage.
IRCTC has a user base of 39 million and gets 50 million visitors daily, according to the statistics listed on the website. According to a report in a leading national daily, personal data of about 1 crore people is feared to have been stolen from the IRCTC server.
Dharmesh Dixit (@theDDixit) commented on the irony of the situation.
Twitter wits made most of the hacking.
“#IRCTC was hacked? How did he even get the page to load in the first place?” read a tweet by @SahilBulla.
The public relations officer of IRCTC, Sandeep Dutta, said that the data breach rumours are just that- rumours. “There is no hacking nor any leakage of IRCTC ticketing website and everything is safe. My team is working relentlessly reaching out to everyone we can. I’m personally supervising everything. This news is just rumours started by a few media organisations.”
If the alleged hack turns out to be true, it could be the biggest data breach in the country’s internet history.
Along with handling this situation, the PRO said their team is also addressing regular concerns of users. “Our regular working has not been affected. We have been responding to queries and assuring everyone at the same time. Once we get data from the cyber cell, a proper verification will be initiated. IG Maharashtra police cyber cell has informed IRCTC about data theft from its website but the details of the said data are still to be shared with IRCTC,” said Dutta.