Cyber criminals target FCI, create counterfeit website

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) was reportedly targeted by cyber criminals earlier this month as unidentified persons created a fake FCI website. The corporation has approached the Delhi Police, asking it to identify those who created the fake website.

On Monday, officials from FCI's office on Barakhamba Lane lodged a complaint at Barakhamba police station.

"FCI noticed a fake website and got it blocked. However, they need to know why the website was created. We may ask the Cyber Crime Cell to investigate the matter," a senior police officer said.

According to a senior FCI official, the fake website was noticed for the first time on October 11 and its design and content was "exactly the same" as the real site. "Our address is fciweb.nic.in whereas the fake website's address was fciweb.nicin. New content on the FCI website would automatically be uploaded to the fake site," the official told Newsline on condition of anonymity.

FCI informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the bogus website was blocked, the official said. "We also got in touch with National Informatics Centre (NIC) that maintains our website, so that they could exercise caution in such matters."

"More than 8,000 employees are to be recruited by the FCI and the selection process is on. The fake website could have been formed to influence FCI's recruitment process," the official said.

The other motive, he said, could be to tarnish the image of the corporation or "impact the tendering process".

"Tenders are invited and they may have wanted to misuse the fake website to spread misinformation and affect market dynamics to influence tenders invited by FCI," he said.

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