Railway computers are not secure: CAG

Viruses, physical access defeat systems purpose

 
The FOIS is used in preparing receipts and storing all kind of data related to freight services, the major source of revenue generation for Railways. According to the CAG report, FOIS not only generates wrong receipts but also stores data with errors; in addition to that the system is not secured. 

CRIS runs online ticketing, railway enquiry and other computer network of railways. The organisation has been entrusted with ambitious projects like Track Management System and Parcel Management System also.

According to the report, many works related to freight services, including booking, locating and receipts and keeping records need manual assistance and supplementation violating the rationale of installing such systems.  

The CAG report states that  “Invalid transaction data were noticed in zones. The system even accepted future date for forwarding notes such as dates for the year 2019 and 2021.”

The CAG says: “The test check at a sample of 10 pairs of stations indicated that the data available in the master database varies from two to 1,149 km from their actual distances.”

Net burden

In gross violation of the Railway Board circular intranet-bearing terminals are having internet connections causing virus infections. The system cannot provide secure user ids and passwords and it lacks back-ups too. The terminals are physically accessible as well.
The report also found faults in designing of the system. “The system was not comprehensively designed to incorporate all the relevant business rules relating to freight and posed operational constraints. Consequently, the perceived objectives of Freight Operations Information System were not fully achieved even after more than seven years of its implementation.”