Prompt police response thwarted cyberattacks aimed to dent ‘digital Maha Kumbh’

Prayagraj: Repeated cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the technological infrastructure deployed for the smooth functioning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh were foiled by a dedicated team of men in khaki who kept a close watch on such attacks, most of which originated from overseas IP addresses. cyberattacks
These attacks were related to ransomware, DNS poisoning, DDoS attacks, hacking, SQL injection, spoofing, brute force, web app attacks, many connection attempts over specific ports akin to trojans, malware attacks and huge traffic from malicious IPs to name a few. However, all these attacks were thwarted due to timely alerts by central agencies and prompt action by state police in coordination with various system integrators.
Additional DG (Prayagraj zone) Bhanu Bhaskar told TOI "There were more than six million malicious or suspected attacks during the Maha Kumbh period and these IPs were traced to more than 25 countries. The essence of Digital Maha Kumbh 2025 was preserved by ensuring the cyber security of the digital infrastructure of Maha Kumbh."
He claimed that a single successful attack related to defacement, denial of service attack, or hacking and use of infrastructure for misinformation or malicious information would have cost severely.
"But for the efforts of Mela police, with the help of central agencies along with active cooperation from IIT Kanpur and IIIT Allahabad and other service providers, this task was completed with utmost meticulousness and sincerity with zero error," he said.
IG (Prayagraj range) Prem Gautam told TOI, "Ensuring cybersecurity during the Maha Kumbh was a critical component of its Digital Maha Kumbh framework. Reliance on advanced digital infrastructure created multiple potential vulnerabilities for malicious actors to exploit."
He claimed that these were related to the use of hardware and software, network infrastructure, device vulnerabilities like CCTV, web and mobile operations, vulnerabilities in the operation of VMD/digital displays/public address systems, cloud services and data repositories, authentications, and possible threats related to access.
There were possibilities of cyber-attacks to disturb digital services and attacks to harvest sensitive information through DDoS attacks, taking control of systems, dissemination of malicious information, and compromising surveillance systems to disturb security operations.
Gautam said: "With the help of central agencies and premier institutes of the country, Mela police got the testing and quality check of digital infrastructure through STQC (standardization testing and quality certification, MeitY, govt of India)."
The IG claimed that Mela police, with the active support of Director IIT Kanpur, a team headed by Prof Sandeep Shukla, and experts from C31 Hub, IIT Kanpur, with the on-ground support of Prof S Venkatesan, IIIT Allahabad, conducted an extensive cyber security assessment of all the digital infrastructure. After significant efforts, all the cyber security measures were in place before the Maha Kumbh, and all vulnerabilities were plugged. Moreover, the Mela police also undertook massive background work with the help of central agencies to ensure the cyber security of the digital infrastructure. This included live monitoring of all the networks and IPs where public-facing websites or apps are hosted for any malicious access or attack.
During Maha Kumbh, the Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC) played a vital role, serving as the nerve centre for managing this unprecedented gathering, ensuring safety, crowd control and operational efficiency through advanced digital tools.
"The ICCC was instrumental in real-time monitoring of crowds, crowd management, crime prevention and security, emergency response coordination, traffic management and most importantly, data integration, analytics and processing for decision-making."
In addition to Maha Kumbh ICCC, there is another ICCC in reserve police lines (Model Control Room ICCC), both having identical viewing capabilities.