Some Indian government websites allow scammers to post advertisements that can redirect visitors to online betting platforms.
TechCrunch has observed around 40 'gov.in' website links related to Indian states including Bihar, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram and Telangana being redirected to online betting platforms. discovered. Some of these websites belong to each state's state police and property tax departments. Fraudulent links are now indexed by search engines like Google, making your ads easier to find online.
The redirect website, which is touted as 'Asia's most popular' online betting platform and 'India's number one online cricket betting app', allows betting on games including cricket tournaments such as the Indian Premier League. It is claimed that
It is not clear how the scammers embedded the ad on the Indian government page or how long the link was redirected to the online betting platform.
TechCrunch, which discovered the issue earlier this week, alerted India's Computer Emergency Response Team, known as CERT-In, to the blunder and provided some links to affected state government websites for reference.
Shortly after, India's cyber agency acknowledged receiving the email and on Thursday acknowledged that CERT-In had escalated the matter.
“We have consulted with the relevant authorities to take appropriate measures,” the agency said in an email. It is unclear whether the flaw that allowed backdoor access to state government websites has been fixed.
Last June, TechCrunch reported that scammers were exploiting security flaws in the government's Web Content Management System software to advertise hacking services on U.S. government websites. Some of those ads have been available online for years.
