The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), on Saturday, issued a statement saying that the organisation refutes false entitlements by certain section of the media claiming to be a security researcher and has access to huge amount of Aadhaar data including the peoples’ bank details.
The UIDAI has issued the statement in a row of tweets on the official id of the Aadhaar on the social media platform and assured that no third person will be a security threat to the Aadhaar holder. The move came after a report by business technology news website ZDNet had claimed that a state-owned utility company has access to every private information of the Aadhaar holders, including their names, the unique 12-digit identity numbers, and their bank details, thus making it a data breach.
The UIDAI has assured that there is no truth in the story doing rounds in the media and the Aadhaar remains safe and secure still. The organisation said that even if the claims were to be true, the security of the utility company had to be raised and not the security of Aadhaar.
The organisation also questioned that if the bank account numbers had been leaked, then would that mean all Indian banks’ database has been breached, to which the UIDAI answered in an obvious negative manner.
The UIDAI assured that the availability of an Aadhaar holder’s details with a third person do not mean that it will lead to financial/other fraud, and as for any transaction to be done, a successful fingerprint authentication, Iris authentication, or One-Time Password (OTP) of the Aadhaar holder is required.
The final statement by the UIDAI advised the people to not get misled by any false and irresponsible stories being circulated on the social media.
The statement issued by the UIDAI on its official Twitter handle is penned down.
We refute the reports in a certain section of media sourced from ZDNet which quote a person purportedly claiming to be a security researcher that a state-owned utility company has vulnerability which can be used to access huge amount of Aadhaar data including banking details.
There is no truth in this story as there has been absolutely no breach of UIDAI’s Aadhaar database. Aadhaar remains safe and secure.
Also Read: UIDAI advises people to take precautions while sharing Aadhaar details online
The story is totally baseless, false & irresponsible. It purports that the database of a state Utility company containing its customer details such as bank account numbers, consumer number, Aadhaar number (not the biometrics), etc., has vulnerability.
Even if the claim purported in the story were taken as true, it would raise security concerns on database of that Utility Company and has nothing to do with security of UIDAI’s Aadhaar database.
If one goes by the logic of ZDNet’s story, since the Utility company’s database also had bank account numbers of its customers, so would that mean that all Indian banks’ databases have been breached? The answer would obviously be in negative.
Further, one must understand that the Aadhaar number, though a personal sensitive information, is not a secret number.
Mere availability of Aadhaar number with a third person will not be a security threat to the Aadhaar holder or will not lead to financial/other fraud, as for any transaction, a successful authentication through fingerprint, Iris or OTP of the Aadhaar holder is required.
We advise people not to get misled by such false and irresponsible stories being circulated in social and other media by some vested interests.
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