Information published on Twitter about RS Sharma not fetched from Aadhaar database: UIDAI

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday dismissed all claims about TRAI Chief Ram Sewak Sharma's being hacked using his Aadhaar number and said the information published on Twitter about Sharma was not fetched from Aadhaar database or UIDAI’s servers.

UIDAI said the personal details of Sharma, who had been a public servant for decades, were already there in the public domain.

“Aadhaar database is totally safe and has proven its security robustness over last eight years. UIDAI emphatically stated that any information published on Twitter about the said individual RS Sharma was not fetched from Aadhaar database or UIDAI’s servers,” UIDAI said in a statement.

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The TRAI chief had put out his Aadhaar number on Twitter, throwing a challenge to anyone to show him if it made him vulnerable to any security risks.

Many hackers subsequently put out Sharma’s registered mobile number, PAN number and other details including his date of birth, address, claiming they traced the same from his Aadhaar number.

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Maintaining that Aadhaar had built the digital trust among people, UIDAI condemned the act terming it as malicious attempts to malign the world’s largest unique identity project - Aadhaar.

UIDAI cautioned people not believe such fraudulent elements active on social and other media.

“This is merely cheap publicity by these unscrupulous elements who try to attract attention by creating such fake news…In today’s digital world through various search engines such as Google, personal data can be picked from different sources without Aadhaar and a profile can be made.”

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"It is reiterated that in this case of Sharma, no data has been fetched using his Aadhaar number from UIDAI’s servers or Aadhaar database.  It is reiterated that people usually give PAN or mobile number at many places. Someone can pick other personal data from different websites as he gets to know his PAN/mobile number,” the statement added.