Under Cyber Attack: E-Nagarpalika Portal Covering 413 Urban Areas, Data Corrupted

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The state’s e-Nagarpalika portal, which is the online civic tax payment software covering 413 towns and cities in the state, has suffered a cyber attack, leading to corruption of data. Offline data, of which back-up is created on tapes every three days, is safe.

The portal oversees the mechanism by which citizens of these civic bodies get online services like birth and death as well as marriage certificates, payment of property, water and sanitation taxes, among others.

On December 21, information was given by urban administration department that there was a cyber attack on software. As a precautionary measure, the team immediately shut down all the servers and operated networks of the department at 11 am.

After this, information was given to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team and cyber police. Officials said that no evidence was found of stored data leakage.

"Luckily, server was switched off on time. All security certificates were up to date. Following the attack, e-Nagarpalika portal has been shut till Tuesday. Civic bodies have been told to work offline till restoration of system. The cyber attackers have corrupted the entire data of all 413 cities, but offline data, of which backup is taken on tapes every 3 days, is safe," said Neeraj Mandloi, the Principal Secretary, Urban Administration and Housing Department.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-In, which is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents, the state's cyber police and Madhya Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation Limited are making efforts to restart the portal.