CoWin data leak: Son of health worker from Bihar arrested
The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police has reportedly apprehended a man from Bihar and a juvenile in connection to the alleged CoWin Portal data leak. According to the news agency ANI, police officials believe that the arrested Bihar man shared the compromised information from the CoWin Portal on the messaging platform Telegram.
Why does this story matter?
This latest development comes after numerous media reports claimed last week about a purported breach of the data of beneficiaries registered on the central government's CoWIN platform. As per reports, the data was allegedly accessed by a Telegram bot, which revealed information such as gender, date of birth, address, Aadhaar card, center for COVID-19 vaccination, etc.
Accused man's mother also being questioned: Report
As per news outlet The Indian Express, the police stated that the accused man was apprehended from his residence after he created a Telegram bot that shared sensitive data of citizens. The mother of the accused, who works as a healthcare worker in Bihar, is also being questioned by the cops regarding the matter.
Details on Delhi Police's probe with CERT-In into matter
The Delhi Police, who was investigating the issue along with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), revealed that they had asked Telegram to provide details regarding the bot and its creator. "The accused was identified using technical surveillance. He was arrested from his residence in Bihar. We suspect he took his mother's help to breach the system," an officer said.
Accused tried hacking system and was successful, reveals official
"He (the accused) created a bot and shared it on Telegram. We know he was not selling the data to anyone in particular. He tried hacking the system and was successful," the officer told The Indian Express. "When he realized he could put all the data online, he did. We do not think he had any other ulterior motives," clarified the officer.
Centre's reaction to alleged CoWin data breach
On June 13, the central government launched a probe into the data breach claims after the personal data of vaccinated Indian citizens from the CoWin website was reportedly leaked via a Telegram messenger channel. Responding to the media claims of the data breach, the Centre asserted that the CoWin platform maintains strong data privacy safeguards.
CoWIN breach-proof portal, claimed government officials
Later on June 15, the Parliamentary Committee on Communication and Information Technology (IT) met to discuss the data security and privacy of the citizens. When questioned about the status of the inquiry into the alleged breach of information from the CoWIN portal, the government officials revealed that the data leaked by bots was allegedly compiled from a variety of sources, as per Mint.
All you need to know about Centre's CoWin portal
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government launched the CoWin portal in January 2021 as a digital platform to record the coronavirus vaccination process details of the country. According to CoWin, which is owned and managed by the Union Health Ministry, nearly 1.11 billion people have registered on the platform.
