Hundreds of thousands of Aadhaar number of pension beneficiaries was made public in a serious data breach in Jharkhand.
The data were easily accessible till Saturday evening reportedly due to some programming glitch on the Women and Child & Social Security of the Government of Jharkhand’s website was later blocked.
The website maintained by the Jharkhand Directorate of Social Security has raised an important question of data vulnerability. Jharkhand has over 1.6 million pension beneficiaries.
According to reports, the names, addresses, Aadhaar numbers and bank account details of the beneficiaries of the states’ old-age pension scheme was up for browsing which is against the law as the Aadhaar law prohibits publishing, display or posting publicly of a person’s Aadhaar details.
Calls were made to the office of Department of Women and Child & Social Security when the breach was noticed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) office, Ranchi, late Saturday.
Calls were made to the office of Department of Women and Child & Social Security when the breach was noticed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) office, Ranchi, late Saturday.
“We got a call from the UID cell telling us that the Aadhaar numbers of pension beneficiaries were being displayed on the website. We are aware of the seriousness (of the matter) and we will try to find out how and from where this mistake happened,” said Director (Social Security) Ram Parvesh.
From time to time, the misuse of data and privacy provisions has been questioned of the Aadhaar card.