The inspector general (IG) of the Western Railway’s Railway Police Force (RPF), Uday Kumar, has said that the Indian Railway Catering Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website for train booking, is not as well-equipped as it was thought to be.
The IRCTC has been refusing to accept that a number of software have cropped up in the market, which allow users to bypass the regular booking process by a few seconds and land themselves a confirmed berth.
Mr Kumar said that the financial damage caused by the hacking of the website via these software has been small but consistent. He also said they are yet to find a way to stop it.
“The point is that the IRCTC website probably doesn’t have strong enough firewalls or sophisticated enough tools to stop the use of these software on its website, but they are working on it,” said Mr Kumar.
The RPF has been tracking such cases since 2014, when the now infamous racket of virtual touting from out of Ahmedabad had allowed the perpetrator earn '2.5 crore.
Another illegal practice that has been going on involves some of the appointed agencies by the IRCTC using the access to the servers as way to book confirmed tickets for exorbitant prices from passengers.
“These agencies that are actually supposed to facilitate booking of tickets for those who don’t have access and are given a quota from the IRCTC for the same have been using this to earn money from commuters, to confirm the ticket,” further added Mr Kumar.
Even though these practices have been going on for over two years now, the IRCTC and the RPF are yet to draw out a plan to curb this menace.
