Aadhaar cannot be hacked, claims UIDAI

UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has denied the reports claiming that the Aadhaar enrollment software has been hacked. UIDAI has come up with a statement citing that the recent report is completely incorrect and irresponsible and some vested interests are trying to create confusion.

A recent report revealed that the Aadhaar database containing the biometric and personal details of over 1 billion users has been compromised. The report suggested that a patch has been sold on WhatsApp groups for as low as Rs. 2,500 and that this patch disables the critical security features used to enroll new users. The report suggested that this can pose potential harm as Aadhaar is becoming a vital one for all the basic necessities these days.

UIDAI statement rubbishes claims

UIDAI claims that Aadhaar being vulnerable to hacking is totally baseless. It added that the software matches all the biometric (iris and 10 fingerprints) of a resident before enrolling for Aadhaar and issuing the unique ID.

It further went on stating that all the necessary safety measures are taken and this includes providing a standardized software that will encrypt the data before saving to any disk to identifying every operator before every enrollment.

It stated that all the measures ensure end-to-end security of resident data including full encryption of the resident data during the capture, physical security, network security, access control, tamper resistance, 24x7 security, stringent audit mechanism and fraud management system monitoring.

With these security measures, it claims that it is impossible to let ghost entries into the Aadhaar database. Even in a hypothetical situation, if there is a ghost enrollment that is sent to the UIDAI by a manipulative attempt, it will be identified by the robust backend system. Such enrollment packages will be rejected and an Aadhaar number will not be generated.

It added once again that the reported claim of letting any unauthorized person create an entry into the Aadhaar database and letting a person create multiple Aadhaar cards is false. If an operator violates the strict enrollment and update processes, then the person will be blocked and blacklisted and imposed a penalty of Rs. 1 lakh. The statement shared that over 50,000 operators have been blacklisted by the stringent and robust system.