HYDERABAD : Nearly a month after Telangana police pulled down its official department website for maintenance reasons, the technical team restored access to it on Sunday. The website was closed for public use following a series of alleged data breaches in police apps and services.
While a 20-year-old college student, allegedly involved in the data hack, was arrested 20 days ago, the police initiated Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing “across all police internal and external networks, web and mobile applications, as well as cloud and endpoints”.
Not only the Telangana State Police Department site, but the websites for the police tri-commissionerates were also pulled down for maintenance. The cops said that security checks were being carried out to identify and address any security weaknesses and to prevent any future breaches.
In the absence of the official website, complainants could not access online copies of the First Information Reports (FIRs) they had filed. With the website back in service, the police announced, “FIRs can now be downloaded directly from our website.”
However, some users alleged that they were still facing errors while accessing the website. One of the users complained that he was unable to open the website, while another said he was facing an error in downloading an FIR copy.
When TNIE accessed the website, it found that the technical team had added a security feature of sending a One-Time Password (OTP) to the registered mobile number once the user had typed in their login credentials. Even so, it is to be noted that access to the websites of the police tri-commissionerates is yet to be restored.
Officers working in the department concerned had earlier told TNIE that the websites undergoing maintenance would be restored in a phased manner after necessary security checks were completed.
Currently, the Technical Services team is working on upgrading the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) for integration of the new criminal laws that is set to come into effect from Monday (July 1).