India's Aadhaar card system glitch found: Report

New Delhi : Over a last couple of months, a lot of questions have been raised over the safety and security of India's Aadhaar Card system, which allows Indian citizens a unique ID to access various services offered by the government. Now, a report claims to have discovered a glitch in the system that can put government claims in deep trouble.

According to a report by Huffington Post India, it claims to have discovered a software patch that could compromise the software to enrol Aadhaar users and allow anyone in the world to register and ID.

This is worrying as Indian residents use the Aadhaar IDs to avail benefits provided by the government. Fake IDs can allow people to scam the system and score these benefits.

It could also lead to identity theft, leading to people being locked out of access to essential services, with little recourse for proving the authenticity of their IDs and getting back into these programs.

HuffPo found that the software used by enrolment centers – many of were run for profit by private citizens and companies, especially in rural areas in India – could be compromised by a $35 patch (Rs 2,500), so as to allow people to bypass the authentication processes that would let them enrol Aadhaar users.

However, it has been not mentioned that for how long this glitch has been in the system or if this has been utilised for wrong purposes.