UIDAI rubbishes reports claiming that Aadhaar software has been hacked

New Delhi, Sep 11: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday rubbished reports claiming that the Aadhaar enrolment software has been allegedly hacked. UIDAI further stated that such reports "lack substance and are baseless".

An online media portal on Tuesday reported that the Aadhaar database was "compromised by a software patch that disables critical security features of the software used to enrol new Aadhaar users". According to an investigation by HuffPost India, the UIDAI Aadhaar software used to enrol new users, and get them into the Aadhaar database, may have been subjected to a hack using a software patch that disabled critical security features.

"Unique Identification Authority of India dismisses a news report appearing in social & online media about Aadhaar Enrolment Software being allegedly hacked as completely incorrect and irresponsible. The claims lack substance and are baseless," the UIDAI said in a statement.

"No operator can make or update Aadhaar unless resident himself give his biometric. 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," the statement added.

The report states that the vulnerability may have been inserted in the patch, during the time when Aadhaar enrolment software was used by private agencies to enrol people.

UIDAI further clarified that no operator "can make or update Aadhaar unless resident himself give his biometric."