Aadhaar data leak of 1.4 million pensioners raises questions on cybersecurity again

A government website in Jharkhand accidentally displayed the Aadhaar details of lakhs of pensioners due to an error in the website. The details of their names, addresses and bank accounts were also made public.

The breach comes at a time when the Supreme Court and many cyber experts, question the need to make Aadhaar compulsory for availing government schemes and services.

The website, which has compromised the Aadhaar details, is run by the Jharkhand Directorate of Social Security. This is in violation of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, which restricts the public display of anyone's Aadhaar details.

Details on the number of hours during which the information remained public is not known. The website was, however, blocked soon after the incident.

Around 1.4 million pension beneficiaries, of the 1.6 million in Jharkhand, have linked their Aadhaar numbers with their bank accounts to avail the benefit of direct bank transfer.

The Aadhaar's (and your fingerprints') safety was first questioned when a private e-governance agency - Common Services Center - assisting the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to process Aadhaar applications, made public the details of cricketer MS Dhoni.

The agency was blacklisted for 10 years by the government following the incident.

And what may have seemed like an isolated incident really wasn't. According to a report in The New Indian Express, a letter written by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said that there have been various leaks of Aadhaar data which can be accessed without a hitch on Internet.

The letter read: "There have been instances wherein personal identity or information of residents, including Aadhaar number and demographic information and other sensitive personal data such as bank account details etc. collected by various Ministries/Departments... has been reportedly published online and is accessible through an easy online search."

The latest breach only highlights the need to tighten the security and safety of the Aadhaar, which is linked to bank accounts, PAN details and the obvious fingerprints and retina data of an individual, to ensure there is no data theft.