The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) website of the Tamil Nadu police was reportedly hacked by cybercriminals operating from South Korea. These hackers demanded a $20,000 ransom to restore the site. Although the incident occurred on Saturday, it has affected several e-services offered by the Tamil Nadu police.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects managed to hack the website by identifying two logins with weak passwords. The compromised site contained data related to known criminals, habitual offenders, First Information Reports, investigation statuses, road accident details, and more. While e-services were One-Time Password (OTP) enabled, making them difficult to access, the police are now working to strengthen access security with a two-step verification process.