UIDAI refutes Aadhaar data breach, Tribune stands by report

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has denied any data breach in Aadhaar security.

Calling the report of a data breach as 'misreporting', UIDAI said, "The Aadhaar data, including biometric information, are fully safe and secure". The investigative report titled "Rs 500, 10 minutes, and you have access to billion Aadhaar details" by The Tribune newspaper had claimed that details of Aadhaar database are easily available, at the payment of a mere Rs 500.

In a series of tweets, however, Aadhaar said the act could have been an instance of misuse of the grievance redressal search facility. It also said to take appropriate action against the person by tracing them.

No #Aadhaar data breach; Aadhaar data including biometric information is fully safe and secure: @UIDAI, denying report by @thetribunechd, saying it is a case of misreporting 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2d4ORHqqMh

— PIB India (@PIB_India) January 4, 2018

Claims of bypassing or duping the #Aadhaar enrollment system are totally unfounded: @UIDAI, denying report by @thetribunechd 2/2 pic.twitter.com/Rn3k15mDJJ

— PIB India (@PIB_India) January 4, 2018

"UIDAI maintains complete log & traceability of the facility, any misuse is traceable. Legal action has been taken, including FIR against persons involved. Search facility gives limited access to name & other details, has no access to biometric details", it added.

However, The Tribune contested the UIDAI claims para by para saying “claims of bypassing” the system are unfounded is to deny facts staring everyone in the face. If unauthorised people can log into government data and download it, how is that not “bypassing”?

And if FIRs are being contemplated, is that not an admission of something being amiss? it added in a long detailed answer.

Of late, there have been many cases of data breaches. In July last year, Reliance Jio users’ data had been leaked by a website called magicapk.com. The site threw up data such as first and last name, email id, mobile number, date of SIM card activation and which circle it was activated from.

Recently, social media behemoth Facebook had clarified that it is only trying to encourage new users to use their real names, not link its users’ accounts to their Aadhaar numbers.