The alleged data leak of COVID-19 vaccination beneficiary details is assumed to have happened from a non-governmental database, which might have been populated by a threat actor running the telegram bot which released the leaked data, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said.
In an interview to The Hindu here on Tuesday, he said his reference to “previously stolen data stolen in the past” in his tweet on Monday was not regarding data theft from government databases. “I tweeted that very technically, maybe people didn’t understand. It is certainly not data from CoWIN or a government database. Data are probably coming from a database owned by the person who owns the telegram bot. it is not a government database. Now, whether that data inside it are false or real, that only an investigation can tell,” he said.
To a question on how real data on many personalities, including political leaders and journalists, related to their vaccination centre and personal details were seen on the database, he said that some of the data may be real, as Aadhaar data had been breached hundreds of times even before 2014.
“I as an MP has raised this issue of Aadhaar data leaks many times in Parliament. We are very clear that it did not come from CoWIN. The CoWIN app represents a source of pride for India, as it enabled the vaccination of millions. A lot of other countries are not happy with the application. So, there is a vested interest out there to defame CoWIN and paint it as leaky and vulnerable. The tendency is to rush into a narrative because it is a very juicy one. We have championed the personal data protection Bill and the government is creating this framework where the citizen’s data have legal protection,” he said.
Twitter charge
On former Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey’s allegation that the Indian government had threatened to shut down the social media network in the country and attempted to take down pro-farmers’ protest content, Mr. Chandrasekhar said Twitter was not in compliance of the country’s laws from two years from 2020 to 2022, yet the government did not take any action against them.
He said it was an outright lie that there was a raid on the platform. When asked about the Delhi Police’s Special Cell’s inspection at the Twitter office in Delhi in March 2021, he said that it was related to tax and sales related issues.
Regarding the Kerala government’s push towards making the State a hub of electronics and IT, he said that Kerala has a huge opportunity in start-ups and deep tech start-ups, but that he is not very bullish about its capabilities in manufacturing and electronics.
“In the next two to three years, there is going to be a huge amount of electronic manufacturing investment. They are all going to other States and not to Kerala as the perception about Kerala as a manufacturing unfriendly State is too deeply embedded to be washed away with investor conferences. There are not too many investors in Kerala for this,” he said.
