Indian lawmakers among thousands hit by CoWIN data leak

 

Modi government at the centre is claimed to be unaware of a massive data leak that made Indian citizens' data easily accessible on Telegram by inserting phone and Adhaar Card ID numbers.

Thousands of victims of this breach include high-profile legislators and renowned journalists of the country.

Indian media reports suggest that the information available includes the citizens' Adhaar Card numbers, the ID card numbers used for vaccination, gender, birth year, name of the vaccination centre, voter ID, and PAN card numbers.

Malayala Manorama reported Monday that the data leak happened because of the CoWIN portal — the COVID vaccination portal in which citizens entered their details.

When a mobile number or Adhaar Card ID is entered, the Telegram bot discloses data to anyone on the platform.

The News Minute report suggested that the details of several politicians such as Telangana's Minister of Information and Communication Technology Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, DMK Member of Lok Sabha Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, BJP Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai, Congress Member of Lok Sabha Karti Chidambaram, and Former Union Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan of the BJP, were easily available.

A tweet by All India Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale revealed the details of Rajya Sabha MP and TMC leader Dered O'Brien, former Union Minister P Chidambaram, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, journalists Rajdeep Sardesai (India Today) and Barkha Dutt (Mojo Story), have also been leaked in a similar way.

Gokhale took to Twitter to write, "There has been a MAJOR data breach of Modi Govt where personal details of ALL vaccinated Indians including their mobile nos., Aadhaar numbers, Passport numbers, Voter ID, Details of family members etc. have been leaked & are freely available."

When the phone number of Rajesh Bhushan, the Union Secretary to the Ministry of Health, was entered on the Telegram bot, the details along with his wife's details, who is an MLA from the Kotdwar Constituency in Uttarakhand, were revealed, reported Malayala Manorama.

Further, Gokhale, on Twitter, addressed the government and raised several questions about the data breach.

"How did personal details incl passport no, Aadhaar no., etc. get leaked when Modi Govt claims it follows "strong data security"? Why is the Modi Govt incl Home Ministry NOT AWARE of this leak & why haven't Indians been informed about a data breach? Who has the Modi Govt given access to sensitive personal data of Indians incl Aadhaar & Passport nos. which enabled this leak? (sic)", he wrote.

"This is a matter of serious national concern. And predictably, the Minister in charge of this is [Ashwini Vaishnaw] who heads the Electronics, Communications, & IT portfolios in addition to Railways. How long will the incompetence of [Ashwini Vaishnaw] be ignored by PM Modi?" he asked.

He also claimed that the personal details of senior journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt, and Rahul Shivshankar have also been leaked.