Cyberspace Still Not Safe In India! CoWIN Database Leaked Over Telegram: Reports

According to an astounding report, data of Indian citizens registered over CoWIN portal is exposed over Telegram. The portal contained information of high profile people of the nation. Crucial information like the Aadhaar Card, and PAN card details are available on messaging platform Telegram. This report has stirred the centre government and an investigation in this matter is being conducted.

The massive data breach

According to the study, the Telegram bot publishes the ID card number, gender, birth year, name of the vaccination centre, and the individual’s doses when a mobile phone registered with the CoWIN portal is entered. The Aadhaar, voter ID, and PAN card numbers of Indian individuals are now publicly available on Telegram as a result of this significant data leak.

This data breach can have huge implications on the public of the nation. This alleged breach can have impact on hundreds of people who have registered themselves on the portal. The information itself is very sensitive and if the same gets into the wrong hands, it can harm the nation.

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Opposition leaders express their concern CoWIN data breach

This alleged breach has become a matter of concern for many political leaders.  Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale has also expressed concern regarding this latest data breach of citizens and high-profile people.

Gokhale wrote on Twitter, “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”.

SHOCKING:

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.

Some examples 👇

(1/7)

— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) June 12, 2023

Centre government looking into the matter

This incident has come up in sharp contradiction to what RS Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority stated earlier. In January this year, he tweeted “CoWIN has state-of-the-art security infrastructure and has never faced a security breach. Data of our citizens is absolutely “safe” and “secure”. Any news about data leaks from CoWIN holds no merit”.

#CoWIN has state-of-the-art security infrastructure and has never faced a security breach. Data of our citizens on CoWIN is absolutely #safe and #secure. Any news about data leaks from CoWIN holds no merit.

— Dr. RS Sharma (@rssharma3) January 21, 2022

A senior official from Electronics and IT Ministry reacted to the matter and said, “We have certainly taken cognisance of the issue and have initiated a probe into the root cause and whether the data is coming from CoWIN or some other source.”