NIC alerts WB government of potential security breach in Kanyashree scheme | Kolkata

Information such as account numbers of beneficiaries related to the West Bengal government’s Kanyashree scheme may have been compromised, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has alerted the state government.

The Trinamool Congress government immediately directed officials of the state women and child development and social welfare department and the district administrations to strengthen the portal’s security, and a six-point advisory has also been issued.

“The NIC has flagged a potential security breach on the Kanyashree portal, which may have compromised specific stakeholder accounts,” the notice issued by the government said.

This comes days after cyber criminals attacked another scheme of the state government, Taruner Swapno, in which funds meant for students of class XI and XII to buy tablets and smartphones have been siphoned to other accounts.

“The state government has spent around ₹1,600 crore to provide tabs and smartphones to students. Around ₹2 crore has been siphoned off to fake accounts by cyber criminals. The investigation is going on. A few people have already been arrested,” said a senior official of the state government.

Kanyashree Prakalpa is a flagship programme of the Mamata Banerjee administration which was introduced in 2013. Under the scheme, girls studying in class VIII or above, or aged between 13 and 18 years, get ₹1000 annually for each year they remain in school and are unmarried. They also receive a one-time grant of ₹25,000.

The government’s advisory has asked officials to reset passwords for all accounts that are allegedly compromised, and ensure that operating systems, browsers and other software are updated, any unauthorised or legacy software from affected systems are removed, firewalls are enabled and suitable anti-malware and anti-ransomware installations are made, and regular system scams are executed.