Some Indian government websites have allowed scammers to place advertisements that are able to redirect visitors to online betting platforms.
TechCrunch discovered nearly four dozen “gov.in” website links linked to Indian states, including Bihar, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram and Telangana, which were redirecting to online betting platforms. Some of those websites belong to the state police and property tax departments in the respective states. The scam links were indexed by search engines including Google, making the ads easier to find online.
The redirect websites, described as “Asia’s most popular” online betting platform and “the number one online cricket betting app in India”, claim to allow betting on sports including cricket tournaments such as the Indian Premier League.
It is unclear how the scammers placed advertisements on the Indian government pages or for how long the links were redirecting to online betting platforms.
After the issue was discovered earlier this week, TechCrunch alerted India’s Computer Emergency Response Team, known as CERT-In, about the lapse and linked to some affected state government websites for reference. Provided links to.
Shortly after, the Indian cyber agency confirmed receipt of the email and on Thursday CERT-In confirmed that it had escalated the matter.
“We have spoken to the relevant authority for appropriate action,” the agency said in an email response. It is not clear whether the flaw that allowed backdoor access to state government websites has been fixed.
Last June, TechCrunch reported that scammers Advertisements published for hacking services on US government websites Due to a security flaw in the government’s Web Content Management System software. Some of those ads appear to have been available online for years.
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