Indian Railways cracks down on ticketing fraud, deactivates 3.03 crore suspicious IDs

Railways Ministry outlines sweeping cybersecurity overhaul of its e-ticketing platform, citing Aadhaar-based Tatkal authentication, anti-bot systems and real-time monitoring to curb fraud and protect passengers from automated booking abuse.

Indian Railways has deactivated 3.03 crore suspicious user accounts in 2025 and blocked over 60 billion malicious bot requests in the six months ending December, as part of an intensified crackdown on online ticketing fraud.

The Railways Ministry said the measures are aimed at safeguarding the reservation and e-ticketing platform, particularly during high-demand Tatkal bookings. Aadhaar-based One-Time Password (OTP) authentication has been introduced for online Tatkal reservations to ensure instant identity verification and restrict the operation of fake or agent-controlled multiple accounts. Officials said the move has improved ticket access for genuine passengers and enhanced transparency.

Multi-layer cybersecurity architecture

At the application level, the platform uses multi-layer CAPTCHA systems to prevent scripting, brute-force attempts and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. Security mechanisms aligned with global web protection standards have also been deployed.

To manage heavy traffic and filter malicious activity, the Railways has implemented an enterprise-grade Content Delivery Network and advanced anti-bot tools. Network firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, application delivery controllers and web application firewalls form part of the broader protection framework.

The Information and Communication Technology infrastructure operates in high-availability mode and is shielded against volumetric DDoS attacks through multiple internet service providers, with mitigation capacity of nearly 30 Gbps.

Real-time monitoring and enforcement

Cyber threat intelligence support has been provided by RailTel, including deep and dark web monitoring and digital risk protection. The system is integrated with CERT-In for round-the-clock incident surveillance, while traffic is also tracked by the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre.

Responding to a query in the Rajya Sabha, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said bot traffic accounted for a significant share of total requests in recent months, underscoring the scale of automated attacks.

In addition to blocking 12,819 suspicious email domains, authorities filed 376 complaints linked to nearly four lakh questionable bookings, reflecting sustained action against cyber-enabled ticketing fraud.