New Delhi: Indian Railways deactivated 3.03 crore suspicious user IDs in 2025 as part of strengthened Aadhaar-based authentication and cybersecurity measures aimed at preventing fraud and ensuring fair ticket booking, the Parliament was informed today.
Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Railways’ reservation and e-ticketing platform operates on a robust and highly secure IT system equipped with industry-standard cybersecurity controls, particularly to curb misuse in Tatkal bookings.
To improve transparency and fairness, Aadhaar-based One-Time Password (OTP) authentication has been introduced for online Tatkal ticket reservations. The minister said Aadhaar verification enables instantaneous confirmation of user uniqueness, helping prevent the creation and operation of fake or multiple agent-controlled accounts and improving ticket availability for genuine passengers.
Vaishnaw said Indian Railways has also implemented application-layer security mechanisms, including CAPTCHA systems at multiple stages, to guard against scripting, brute-force attempts and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Anti-bot solutions and a Content Delivery Network (CDN) have been deployed to filter non-genuine traffic and enhance system performance.
The minister informed the House that administrative anti-fraud measures undertaken during 2025 led to the deactivation of 3.03 crore suspicious user IDs. In addition, 12,819 suspicious email domains were blocked, while 376 complaints involving 3.99 lakh suspicious bookings were lodged on the National Cyber Crime Portal.
Providing details of malicious traffic, Vaishnaw said Indian Railways blocked 60.43 billion bot or automated requests over the last six months ending December 2025. He noted that automated bot traffic constituted a significant share of total booking attempts during this period, underlining the scale of cyber threats targeting the e-ticketing system.
Vaishnaw said these technology-driven and administrative measures have helped safeguard the integrity of the Railways’ online reservation ecosystem while ensuring seamless booking access for genuine passengers.
