hometechnology NewsCoWIN Data Breach | Ashwini Vaishnaw says root cause of leak has been identified — more details soon
CoWIN Data Breach | Ashwini Vaishnaw says root cause of leak has been identified — more details soon
The Indian government has identified the root cause of the alleged CoWIN database breach, Union Minister for Electronics and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw told CNBC TV18. He did not go into the specifics for now. India's cybersecurity watchdog CERT-In is probing the matter.
Union Minister for Electronics and Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday, June 23, told CNBC-TV18 that the government has determined the root cause of the recent, alleged CoWIN database breach in which personal and sensitive information of potentially millions of registered users was leaked on a Telegram channel.
The country's cybersecurity watchdog, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), has been tasked with probing the alleged breach.
Without divulging any specific details, Vaishnaw said, “The ongoing investigation has actually figured out the root cause behind the incident, and the investigators will come out and make further announcements once the probe is over.”
Earlier this month, users on social media shared screenshots of the possible security breach of CoWIN vaccination data, with a Telegram bot allegedly exposing personal details based on registered mobile numbers. CNBC-TV18 even joined the Telegram channel, but the bot had been taken down by then. Shortly after, the channel too was shut down.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State, MeitY, said there was no breach detected and that the data being shared was previously stolen, although he didn't specify when the data was stolen and its specifics. Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to assure users that the CoWIN database is secure and that the latest incident was being investigated by CERT-In.
The following week, the Union Health Ministry said it would file an FIR in this regard, as officials suspect the leak could be from other databases “beyond the portal.”
“We will file a case with the Cyber Crime cell either today or in a day or two. However, there has been no breach in CoWIN data. But there could have been some attempt elsewhere. Cybercrime will look into it. Investigations by CERT-in are on, too,” an official said to The Hindu Business Line.
The officials had said the CoWIN portal does not store precise dates of birth for vaccine beneficiaries as it only collects the year of birth. Similarly, CoWIN does not collect addresses or other details, they added.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
First Published: Jun 23, 2023 7:26 PM IST
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