Website with details of wildlife criminals hacked

DEHRADUN: The exercise of creating a database of wildlife criminals has taken a hit after a website created by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) for the purpose was hacked in February.

The officials working on the website, which was accessible to the divisional forest officers in all the states, had reportedly uploaded the details of over 900 such criminals. They are, however, unsure about the amount of data leaked or compromised by the hackers. A rough estimate puts number of such criminals at over 10,000 in India.

The WCCB, which aims to tackle the wildlife related crimes both nationally and at international level, had about two years ago taken the initiative to create the database of all wildlife offenders. The list also had names of such poachers and wildlife criminals from Japan, China, Nepal, and Kuwait who had either been arrested or were wanted.

Apart from slowing down the inventory work, the hacking of the website has also put a question mark on the database that was compiled for cracking the whip on the poachers and animal part smugglers.

Speaking to HT, additional director of WCCB, Tilotama Varma, claimed that they have not lost any data. She, however, said it would take some time before the website is up and running. “We don’t know why and how it (the hacking) happened. We are trying to fix it. It will take time as there are several steps, such as budgetary allocation and other issues, which need to be resolved. We have not lost the data, which is intact with us.”

In 2016, at least 199 websites belonging to central ministries and state governments were hacked as per a reply by the union home ministry in Parliament. In February this year, more than 30 websites, including that of the home ministry, were hacked. According to records, nearly 700 government websites have been hacked in the last three years.