The Income Tax Department of India got mugged. Well, not literally like that, but in this cyber age, hacking and stealing money is just the same.

The income tax (IT) department's computerized electronic clearance system (ECS) was hacked and fraudsters transferred more than INR (Rs) 14 crore (14000000) worth tax refunds to different bank accounts.

On top of that, the IT department was unaware of this incident, which occurred in December 2009. Indian IT dept. Authorities learnt about it only on Thursday and then the inquiry was initiated.

As per the reports, the hacker stole password of an IT assessing officer. Using the officers login and password the hacker transferred the money to various bank accounts.

IT department has now handed over this case to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). Also, the Information Technology department of IT Department has taken immediate action and changed the passwords of all the officials. R K Singh, The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai, has confirmed the incident. But he denied that it was actually a hacking incidence. Its treated as more of a fraud.

The fraud came to notice when one of the Additional commissioner found that some amount supposed to be refunded to one of his assessed citizen, was short. After he informed the authorities of missing amount, an internal probe was ordered, and then they found the mystery of a stolen password.

Possible involvement of an IT official is also suspected.

How it happened?
The hacker (fraudster) used stolen username and password to login to the IT department computer ECS system. Then he used multiple PAN numbers to get the refunds processed and directed them for deposit to various bank accounts. Due to the small amounts from number of accounts, the trace was not easy to find.

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