Lok Sabha Question No. 1736 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-10
Subject: Railway Ticket Booking System
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Dr. Sambit Patra, Ms Sayani Ghosh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1736

TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.12.2025

## RAILWAY TICKET BOOKING SYSTEM

†1736. Dr. SAMBIT PATRA :

Ms. SAYANI GHOSH :

## Will the Minister of Railways be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  received  complaints  regarding  the railway  ticket  booking  system  being  compromised  through  malware, software, third party site etc. and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  prepared  any  action  plan  to  prevent cyber attacks on Railway ticket booking website by cyber criminals and if so, the details thereof?
- (c) whether  the  security  system  of  Indian  Railways'  online  ticketing platform  has  been  repeatedly  breached  by  organised  gangs  for  ticket bookings within seconds by bypassing IRCTC's security protocols and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the  total  number  of  passengers  affected/complaints  received  from passengers in this regard;
- (e) the  details  of  the  reasons  for  such  large-scale  cyber  breaches despite repeated incidents, and whether any internal audit or accountability  has  been  fixed  for  such  failures  and  if  so,  the  details thereof;
- (f) whether it  is  true  that  Aadhaar-verified  IDs,  IRCTC  user  accounts, and  online  payment  gateways  are  being  misused  in  these  operations, leading to potential financial fraud and data privacy violations and if so, the details thereof;

- (g) the  number  of  such  cases  identified  and  whether  such  IDs  and accounts have been blacklisted; and
- (h) the  details  of  action  taken,  including  number  of  cases  registered, arrests made, penalties imposed?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (h): The reservation ticket booking system of Indian Railways is a robust and highly secure IT platform equipped with industry-standard, state-of-the-art  cyber  security  controls.  Indian  Railways  has  taken several  measures  to  enhance  performance  of  reservation  system  and availability of regular/tatkal tickets. These measures include following:
1.  Rigorous  revalidation  and  verification  of  user  accounts  have  been done.  About 3.02 cr suspicious user IDs have been deactivated since January 2025.
2. Anti-bot solutions such as AKAMAI are deployed to filter non-genuine users and ensure smooth booking for legitimate passengers.
3.  To  curb  misuse  and  improve  fairness  in  tatkal  bookings,  Aadhaarbased  One-Time  Password  (OTP)  verification  for  online  tatkal  ticket booking  has  been  introduced  in  a  phased  manner.  It  is  already operational in 322 trains as on 04.12.2025. Due to the above steps, the confirmed tatkal ticket availability time has increased in about 65% of the abovementioned 322 trains.

4. Aadhaar-based OTP for tatkal bookings at reservation counters has also been introduced in a phased manner and it is implemented in 211 trains as on 04.12.2025.
5. As a result of these and other measures, the confirmed tatkal ticket availability time has increased in about 95% of the 96 popular trains.
6.  Complaints  have  been  filed  on  the  National  Cyber  Crime  Portal  for suspiciously booked PNRs.
7. Use of multiple protective layers such as network firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, application delivery controllers and web application firewalls which safeguard the system against cyber threats. The  system  is  hosted  in  a  dedicated,  access-controlled  Data  Centre, secured  through  CCTV  surveillance  and  end-to-end  encryption.  The Data Centre is certified under ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) standards.

To  further  strengthen  cyber  security  posture,  RailTel  Corporation  of India  Ltd.  provides  comprehensive  cyber  threat  intelligence  services, including  take-down  services,  threat  monitoring,  deep  and  dark  web surveillance and digital risk protection. These services offer proactive and  actionable insights into emerging  cyber threats and enable improved incident response.

8. Regular security audits of the reservation system are carried out by CERT-In-empanelled  Information  Security  Audit  Agencies.    Moreover, internet   traffic  related   to   the   ticketing    system   is   continuously

monitored by CERT-In and the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) to detect and prevent cyber attacks.

Further, Requests/ suggestions/ representations, both formal and informal,  are  received  from  public  representatives/organizations/rail users  etc.  at  various  levels  including  Railway  Board,  Zonal  Railways, Divisional Office etc. As receipt of such requests/ suggestions/representation is a continuous and  dynamic process, centralized compendium of such requests is not maintained. However, these are examined and action as found feasible and justified is taken from time to time, which is an on-going process.

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