Aadhaar Details Of 1 Billion Citizens Can Be Bought For Just ₹500 And People Are Scared

After demonetisation and GST, another phenomenon which gripped the nation was Aadhaar. People thronged to Aadhaar centres so that their bank accounts, as well as their SIM cards, may continue working. But the Aadhaar system was not met with open arms as many people were sceptical about divulging information fearing that it may be misused.

Well, your fears have come true and the ‘security’ of the Aadhaar has come under scrutiny. Recently, The Tribune decided to conduct an operation in Chandigarh to determine how secure the system really is and was severely disappointed.

A correspondent Rachna Khaira posed as a customer and contacted the “agent” who created a “gateway” and gave her a login ID and password for a mere payment of ₹500 through Paytm. With the help of this gateway, all the Aadhaar details of about 1 billion people can be accessed.

Not only that, the Tribune paid another ₹300 to the agent for which he provided the software that could allow the person to take a print out of the Aadhaar card.

Additional Director-General of UIDAI Regional Centre, Sanjay Jindal on being contacted expressed shock over the security breach and said,

“Except the Director-General and I, no third person in Punjab should have a login access to our official portal. Anyone else having access is illegal, and is a major national security breach.”

They immediately took up the matter with the UIDAI technical consultants in Bengaluru.

Investigations also revealed that the whole thing started around six months ago when anonymous groups were created on Whatsapp, who targeted around 3 lakh village-level enterprise (VLE), operators.

After the security breach in November, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology who hired the Common Service Centres Scheme operators withdrew the access. However, about one lakh VLEs are now suspected to have gained illegal access to earn quick money.

As soon as this information got out, people were enraged over the supposed ‘secure Aadhaar’ claims of the Government and took to Twitter to vent it out.

1.  A nightmare!

https://twitter.com/ChandyIn/status/948782859388620802

2. So much for Right to Privacy!

3. You said it!

https://twitter.com/one_by_two/status/948792283427635200

4. ‘2018 will be better’ they said.

https://twitter.com/vijay_nair/status/948773742049546245

5. New year, same old breach.

6. Be VERY afraid.

7. Yeah, I’m scared now. NGL.

If RS 500 is all it takes to access all our private information from the govt secured national db of citizens, how hard will it be for foreign enemies with unlimited resources to access, manipulate it?#Aadhar IS disaster in so many ways, including national security. No two ways

— ranajoy (@eyzberg) January 4, 2018

8. This is alarming.

9. Whatever happened to ‘It’s absolutely secure’?

10. Sarcasm is the best way to deal with fear.

11. Can you imagine?

Just imagine, if a journalist could access the database so easily (in 10 mins!) in just Rs 500, who knows which other foreign entity has already gained access? Someone from an enemy state might have gained access too.

This is a giant giant national security disaster.

— meghnad 🔗 (@Memeghnad) January 4, 2018

12. Exactly!

https://twitter.com/Varshinigaru/status/948779384588021761

13. Some resources are all you need.

For as little as Rs. 500, a Tribune correspondent gains access to the Aadhaar details of every Indian citizen registered with the UIDAI. Aadhaar at this point seems little more than a national security disaster.

— Jerusha John Lechler (@angeljerusha) January 4, 2018

14. Too soon.

Wait, there’s more! Apparently, the “gateway” that the agent used for gaining access is actually a backdoor designed to allow officials to verify Aadhaar details. This information was disclosed by a user who also posted a document which lists how the backdoor works.

It’s an official backdoor that UIDAI has itself documented. Now access is being sold.

— Kiran Jonnalagadda (@jackerhack) January 4, 2018

Looking at this, it is evident that the backdoor access is being sold by illegally as it is supposed to be accessible only to the Government. In the wake of this information, the only thing we can do is hope for a thorough investigation to root out the corruption.

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