Coronavirus vaccine data breach puts a dent Narendra Modi government image

New Delhi : Digital India is one of the key focuses of Narendra Modi government and to ensure the safety of data of people is an integral part of it. But, recent reports on data breach at CoWin has left a major dent on the image of the government.

According to media reports, the data of coronavirus vaccine recipients was stolen and was made available on a messaging platform.

The data breach has once again raised questions over the claims by the government that data on the portal is completely safe and secure.

The Fourth, a Malayalam news website, reported on Sunday that the names, mobile telephone numbers and years of birth, among other details, of Covid-19 vaccine recipients uploaded on the government’s CoWin database were also available through a bot — a software programme — on Telegram, a public messaging platform.

However, it has not been confirmed that who has created the bot and what is the purpose of the bot.

On Monday, the Union health ministry, which owns and manages CoWin, said through a media release at 4.30pm that it had requested the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), an arm of the information technology ministry, to “look into this issue and submit a report”.