AI-based attack responsible for Kaveri portal crash, suspects Karnataka Stamps and Registration Department
The Stamps and Registration Department will file a cyber crime complaint after receiving the relevant details about the suspected Artificial Intelligence-based Distributed Denial of Service attack from the Department of E-governance.
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Disinformation thrives not only because of bad actors, but because of how platforms are builtKarnataka government officials Wednesday blamed a suspected Artificial Intelligence-based Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack for the recent crash of the Kaveri portal.
The Stamps and Registration (SR) Department, which handles the Kaveri portal, has sought assistance from the Department of E-governance to track those responsible for the disruption in the software. The SR Department will file a cyber crime complaint after receiving the relevant details about the suspected DDoS attack.
Dayananda K A, Inspector General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps, told The Indian Express that the portal was hit after it was flooded with a series of search requests for documents such as Encumbrance Certificate (EC).
“The Kaveri portal has a provision to search for property registration documents, meant to assist the public. Though the search strength of the portal is around 2.5 lakh queries per day, by making use of AI some elements have piled the portal with around 20 lakh searches,” he said.
This caused pressure on the software causing technical issues for the public accessing the portal and also at sub-registrar offices during property registration, according to Dayanand.
On Wednesday evening, the SR Department issued a release noting that the “Kaveri 2.0 application which was affected by a DDoS attack from last one week has now been fully restored and is operating normally.” The worst-hit day during the period when the portal was down was on February 1 when the number of property registrations dropped to 556. This was in contrast to the 8,500-9,000 registrations done daily using the portal.
After the Department initiated interim measures, property registration numbers improved to 5,243 on February 3, said the Department. A day later, on Tuesday (February 4), the application crashed again and fresh steps were taken to restore the application. The portal was restored by Wednesday evening with total registrations reaching 7,225 with a revenue of around Rs 62.59 crore.
“For context, the average figures for December 2024 was 7,721 registrations and revenue collection of Rs 62.93 cr. These numbers clearly indicate that registration activity has returned to normal levels,” the Department added in the statement.
Department data shows that the portal fared the worst due to the DDoS attack during the first three working days of February. Revenue generated by property registration on February 1 was Rs 15.18 crore, Rs 52.24 crore on February 3, and Rs 17.13 crore on February 4.
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