Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Saturday dismissed the reports of Aadhaar data leak and said there has been “absolutely no breach” of its database. Claiming the report of the data breach as “totally baseless, false and irresponsible” UIDAI said that there is no truth in the story and that Aadhaar remains safe and secure. The Aadhaar-issuing body’s response came after a news website ZDNet reported that a state-owned utility company has the vulnerability which can be used to access the Aadhaar data of holders including banking details.
UIDAI called it as a misleading information and argued that even if the report were taken to be true, it has nothing to do with the security of UIDAIs Aadhaar database, as the security-related concerns should be around the database of utility company. The statutory authority said that the Aadhaar holder has no security threat even if any third person has the Aadhaar number. It maintained that with the mere availability of Aadhaar number with any third party, will not lead to any financial or other frauds. Mentioning the reason, UIDAI explained that this is because a transaction is a contingent upon a successful authentication through Aadhaar holder’s fingerprint, Iris or OTP.
As per ZDNet report, it had claimed that a data leak on a system run by a state-owned utility company can expose private information of Aadhaar holders. It can allow anyone to download private information on all Aadhaar holders including their unique 12-digit identity numbers, and other information about services they are connected to, such as their bank details and other private information.
