New Delhi, Feb 13 (NationPress) On Friday, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed the Parliament, revealing that the implementation of Aadhaar-based authentication, comprehensive multi-layer cybersecurity, and proactive anti-fraud measures resulted in the deactivation of 3.03 crore suspicious user IDs within train ticket bookings in 2025. This initiative aims to facilitate an uninterrupted booking experience for legitimate users.

In response to an inquiry in the Rajya Sabha, the minister stated that 60.43 billion (or 6,043 crore) malicious bot requests were successfully blocked over a span of six months (up until December 2025), thereby preserving the integrity of the e-ticketing platform.

The minister reported that 376 complaints have been filed on the National Cyber Crime Portal, relating to 3.99 lakh questionable bookings, and a total of 12,819 dubious email domains have been prevented from operating in 2025.

To enhance fairness and reduce misuse in Tatkal bookings, the introduction of Aadhaar-based one-time password (OTP) verification for online Tatkal ticket reservations has been initiated.

The Aadhaar authentication process enables immediate verification of user uniqueness, which is crucial given the time-sensitive nature of Tatkal ticket transactions.

The minister elaborated, "Multiple application-level security measures have been introduced, including the deployment of a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) mechanism at various levels to thwart scripting, brute-force attacks, and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) assaults."

Additional security protocols have been established to address vulnerabilities outlined by the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) for application security.

Moreover, to enhance system performance, Indian Railways has integrated a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to alleviate static content load and diminish direct traffic on the internet ticket booking system.

The minister mentioned that anti-bot solutions, such as AKAMAI, have been employed to filter out non-genuine users, which is pivotal in mitigating malicious or suspicious activities on the internet ticket booking platform and ensuring an effortless booking process for authentic passengers.

This initiative plays a significant role in curtailing harmful traffic, he stated.

The entire ICT (Infrastructure and Communication Technologies) infrastructure has been established in a high availability mode to minimize potential failures. The system is safeguarded by industry-standard, state-of-the-art, and data center-grade network and security equipment, which includes network firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, application delivery controllers, and web application firewalls.