HMDA's layout, including Kokapet data, goes missing

HYDERABAD:  Miscreants have hacked a year’s data of the Development Permission Management System (DPMS) belonging to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).

As a result, files regarding building and layout permissions have vanished from servers and from computers of officials connected to these servers. The data hacked include those of the Kokapet auction and integrated master plan.

The DPMS website has been dysfunctional since 20 days. It is for the third time this year that data from website has been hacked.

HMDA had earned revenue of over Rs 2,000 crore from auction of nearly 50 acres of land in Kokapet of Hyderabad, the highest price being  Rs 60 crore per acre.

Through such auctions, state government aims to mobilise Rs 20,000 crore to deal with the economic crisis arising from Coronavirus pandemic.
Official sources said over 10,000 files pertaining to online building and layout permissions and pending payments have gone missing. Data pertaining to Kokapet e-auction has also crashed.

A senior HMDA official, requesting anonymity, told Deccan Chronicle that malware introduced by the hacker has not only crashed DPMS, but also the operating system of all computers used by the metropolitan development authority. Servers connected to State Data Centre (SDC), which has advanced cyber security, have also been hacked. The official admitted that the website has been dysfunctional since 20 days.

Malware got discovered after several online applications filed by architects and builders got rejected. They approached HMDA stating that access to website was also being denied. Clueless officials of the authority checked the software and realised the website had been hacked, thereby causing severe inconvenience,

However, the HMDA official assured that all files will be recovered, though users may face temporary inconvenience. He refused when it was pointed out that a year’s data from DPMS has gone missing.