Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation's (UPSRTC) website was hacked on Wednesday prompting the online bookings via the state-run bus service to halt. The UPSRTC website was hacked on Wednesday around 2 am by some foreign hackers, according to a government statement. The restoration work is currently a work in progress, and online bookings will likely resume within ten days.
"The transport corporation's buses are being operated via manual ticketing so that the operation of the buses is not affected," says UPSRTC regarding the matter. Regional officials have been approached to screen bus stands and depots for 24 hours,"
UPSRTC website hacked: Overview
M/s. Orion Pro, the company managing the UPSRTC website, has sent a team of experts to recover the website's data and needs a week to set up new servers and restore online bookings. In addition, M/s. Orion Pro has reported the file to the police in Navi Mumbai. Gomti Nagar police station has also filed a separate case. In the meantime, the UP government has mandated a security audit by a third party for all of the M/s. Orion Pro's web portals and applications.
When asked about the situation, UPSRTC Managing Director Sanjay Kumar stated, "An international gang of hackers may have hacked the portal; we have registered an FIR in the cyber thana at Gomti Nagar and Orion pro, the company managing the site, has lodged a complaint in Mumbai against the hacking of the site".
Kumar added that tickets will be given physically until the site is restored. Over the next seven to ten days, UPSRTC plans to restore the online ticketing system in all 20 areas and 115 depots.