Maharashtra: Petitioner Asked To Provide Suggestions To Prevent Cyber Attacks On Govt Websites

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday disposed of a PIL concerning cyber-attacks impacting the official websites of the State government and its departments. A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Bharati Dangre noted that the petitioner is willing to provide suggestions to the concerned authorities on preventing cyber attacks on State government websites.

“Undoubtedly there is a need to prevent the government websites from cyber attacks. The petitioner who claims to be an expert is willing to give suggestions to the competent authority to prevent cyber attack. Therefore, the petition is disposed of with a liberty to the petitioner to submit a proposal to respondents,” the HC said. 

A PIL was filed by IT Consultant and Visiting Professor of Law Ruzbeh Dossabhoy Raja through advocates Ajinkya Udane and Jay Bhatia, concerning cyber-attacks on Maharashtra State government websites. It sought directions to the State and Central authorities to prevent cyber intrusions.

The petitioner claims that inadequate security measures and poor monitoring have led to official websites being compromised. He states that infected pages redirect unsuspecting visitors to a gambling website attempting to collect their personal data. Despite reporting the issue to the Maharashtra Cyber Helpline, the National Cyber Crime Helpline, and the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), no action was taken.