The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday dismissed a media report claiming that the Aadhaar enrolment software was allegedly hacked, calling the report “baseless and lacking in substance”.
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The UIDAI issued a statement saying that “certain vested interests are deliberately trying to create confusion in the minds of people which is completely unwarranted”. It further said: “The report itself accepts that ‘it (patch) doesn’t seek to access information stored in the Aadhaar database’. Its further claim ‘to introduce information’ into Aadhaar database is completely unfounded as UIDAI matches all the biometric (10 fingerprints and both iris) of a resident enrolling for Aadhaar with the biometrics of all Aadhaar holders before issuing an Aadhaar.”
An online media portal on Tuesday reported that the Aadhaar database was “compromised by a software patch that disables critical security features of the software used to enrol new Aadhaar users”
However, UIDAI claimed to have taken all the necessary steps to encrypt data at the time of receiving information. It said in the statement that it has ensured “stringent audit mechanism, 24x7 security and fraud management system monitoring, and measures such as data partitioning and data encryption within UIDAI controlled data centres”. It further clarified that no operator “can make or update Aadhaar unless resident himself give his biometric.”
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