JOIN USRailway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday directed IRCTC and the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) to strengthen cybersecurity measures in the wake of a ticketing scam unearthed by the CBI.
A software programmer of the anti-corruption division of CBI and a former employee of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) were arrested on Tuesday by the CBI for reportedly operating an illicit software, which subverted the railways' reservation system.
The manipulated system allowed agents to book hundreds of tatkal tickets at a single click of the mouse, officials said on Wednesday.
The CBI arrested its assistant programmer Ajay Garg and his front man Anil Gupta for developing and distributing the software to agents for a price, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.
The CBI probe so far has indicated that Garg, a 35-year-old software engineer had joined the CBI in 2012 through a selection process and has been working as an assistant programmer. He apparently learned the vulnerabilities of the IRCTC ticketing software during his tenure there between 2007 and 2011.
Both have been sent to five days of CBI custody.