Virus outsmarts not-so-tech-savvy department
Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 17
The Motor Vehicle Department in 1993 began computerisation of its functions with the introduction of computerised issue of national permits in the office of the Transport Commissioner (TC). In 1998, the first registration system was installed in the office of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) at Kohima. Currently eight offices of the RTO and District Transport Offices (DTO) including the office of the TC have been computerised. However, it appears that the department has not attained ‘techno-savvy’ status as a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) suggests that the full objectives of computerised functions have not been achieved.
According to the CAG report, the department spent Rs.1.58 crore for the installation of computer system for all nine offices from 1993-94 to 2007-08. The software for the Vehicle Registration System and national permit was developed as Foxpro application by a private firm. All offices had separate Local Area Network installed and functioning under the Novell Netware Server which houses the database. Dump terminals and PCs were used as client computers. All TROs/DTOs, except DTO in Dimapur, are using the legacy system for registration of vehicles. In DTO Dimapur, an MS Access based upgraded system is reportedly in use for registration of vehicles and issue of smart cards as registration licence. The department is in the process of upgrading its vehicle registration system and driving licence issuing system into a national software being introduced all over India.
There, however, was inadequate IT security as per the CAG findings. It was found that almost all users logged into the system using the name “super” with supervisory rights and password. The password, it was noticed, was known to all computer operators! Moreover, on physical verification of the computers in the offices, it was found that all the computers including the server were completely infected with virus and the department had only one licensed copy of the anti-virus software. Audit also observed that backups of data were not being undertaken on regular intervals and as such no backup policy has been framed. None of the computer systems are protected by any fire prevention systems either, the audit stated.
Despite being one of the first departments in the state to be computerised, the CAG findings reveal that there are deficiencies and undue reliance on vendors, which was not in the best interest of the department. Operations of the computerised systems were marred by weak access controls and supervising leading to unauthorised deletion of date and short deposit of revenue in the government account leading to suspected loss of revenue. The database relating to national permits, registration and driving licence were not wholly reliable because of the presence of invalid data. Lack of controls resulted in multiple registration of the same vehicle. The objective of the audit to asses the extent of achievement through computerisation could not be achieved, the report stated.
