Pune RPF to get the First Cyber Cell in Pune Railway Division
The entire operation of Indian Railways is becoming digital. With the advent of digitization in Railways, the threat of cybercrime has also increased. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has formed a cyber-cell to tap the growing cybercrime in the Railways. The first cyber cell of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), under the Indian Railways, started operating at the Pune Railway Division. After its formation, Railways will prevent mobile theft, denial and service attacks, railway digital infrastructure, cyber forensics, and media analytics. Along with this, it will also help in preventing and investigating cyber-attacks on the software and hardware of the Railways. There’re many Indian Railway laws that every passenger should follow and know in detail. Specially passengers travelling to Pune should make use of this special RPF cell if there is any mishappening during the train journey.
During the media interaction at the Pune Divisional Controller’s office, Central Railways General Manager Mittal said, “Indian Railways have decided to start six cyber cells across the country and their first cell has begun in Pune. Various cyber-related investigations, tracking illegal online ticketing, social media and various cyber frauds are the work of this group”. He said “there’s a team of eight people in this cyber cell”.
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How will RPF Cyber Cell help the Indian Railways?
Railways can stop misuse of ticket booking software:
Railways will stop the misuse of ticket booking software through the cyber cell. Last year, a CBI official was accused of illegally running a racket of IRCTC tickets in association with a travel agent. He was arrested with the charge of illegally running a racket of IRCTC tickets. The accused booked thousands of railway tickets at a time from a portal using illegal software whereas the passengers keep waiting to buy the train tickets. Now, with the help of the cyber cell of the Railway Protection Force, these activities can be tapped and Indian Railways will able to deal with cyber culprits.
The risk of cyber-attack increases with digitization:
Adopting the Digital India program, Railways is continuously engaged in digitizing all its activities. Most of the operations of Indian Railways are internet-based that creates transparency to Railways. But the risk of cyber-attack has also increased. Because of this, after the formation of the cyber cell, Indian Railways will get a lot of help in dealing with these problems.
Collecting evidence on cybercrime is a big challenge:
It’s a big challenge to prove any accused guilty in court regarding cybercrime. Currently, the Railway Protection Force had no resources to deal with such situations. It has been noticed that cybercriminals are relaxed by taking advantage of the lack of a system. Now onwards, cybercrime cell will be used to collect cyber evidence to prove the accused guilty during the investigation of the case.
Improvement of Passengers Security with the cyber cell:
Railways will monitor the safety of passengers through media analytics to save them from trouble. Through this, the security forces will be able to keep a close watch on mobile theft, complaints, and activities through Twitter, Facebook, and Whatsapp.
In the coming time, this system will be implemented at six other places in India. Significantly, the Indian Railways had given information in the Parliament last year to prevent misuse of automation Software. He asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (E&IT) to ban 19 fraudulent websites. Railway officials are also delighted to have the first such facility in India.