UIDAI rejects media report, says 'software hack' claims to create confusion

New Delhi : Rejecting claims of software hack in a media report, UIDAI said that certain vested interests are deliberately trying to create confusion in the minds of people.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday termed the news report as "completely incorrect" and "irresponsible".

“UIDAI hereby dismisses a news report appearing in social and online media about Aadhaar Enrolment Software being allegedly hacked as completely incorrect and irresponsible. The claims lack substance and are baseless. UIDAI further said that certain vested interests are deliberately trying to create confusion in the minds of people which is completely unwarranted,” the Aadhaar-issuing body stated in a series of tweets.

The UIDAI responded hours after a news report by Huffpost India stated that the authenticity of the data stored in Aadhaar identity database has been compromised by a software patch that disables critical security features of the software used to enrol new Aadhaar users.

“Claims made in the report about Aadhaar being vulnerable to tampering leading to ghost entries in Aadhaar database by purportedly bypassing operators’ biometric authentication to generate multiple Aadhaar cards is totally baseless,” it said, pointing out that full measures are being taken to ensure end-to-end security of resident data.

Adding more to the clarification, UIDAI said, "Any enrolment or update request is processed only after biometrics of the operator is authenticated and resident’s biometrics is de-duplicated at the backend of UIDAI system."