A letter written by the government confirms the data has been leaked online
How safe are your biometric data? With Aadhaar, you have given your fingerprints and iris scans to the government. This clearly gives an individual a 'unique' identity. But what if the details of your Aadhaar get leaked? In the recent past, there have been several cases of UID data being compromised with. While the government has constantly denied any possibility of a compromise, The New Indian Express published on Friday a report on how the NDA government has acknowledged that personal identity of individuals, including Aadhaar number and other sensitive information, has been leaked to the public domain.
A letter written by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which the Express claims to have accessed, confirms that data, which the government has been cautiously guarding, has been leaked online. “There have been instances wherein personal identity or information of residents, including Aadhaar number and demographic information and other sensitive personal data such as bank account details etc. collected by various Ministries/Departments... has been reportedly published online and is accessible through an easy online search,” Archana Dureja, a scientist in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, wrote on March 25.
Jaitley maintained that the only way to prevent hacking is to strengthen the firewalls. “Technology always is a learning experience,” he added.
On March 5 the Ministry of Electronics and IT issued a statement assuring that personal data of individuals held by UIDAI is fully safe and secure.
With over a billion Indians possessing an Aadhaar card in 2017, data theft issue can turn into a mammoth crisis for Modi government that has been aggressively pushing for its adoption across services and platforms and for the citizens who have linked their bank accounts and other sensitive information with it......(READ MORE)