A media outlet took the whole country by surprise, raising many concerns by alleging that the personal details of Indian citizens who enrolled themselves on the CoWIN portal to get vaccines. The details are believed to have appeared on the Telegram app. Adding fuel to this, the opposition parties started attacking the Centre.
The media reports on the alleged attack raised many eyeballs and people are concerned about the attack and that their personal details like Aadhar Number, Pan Number, and others might be compromised. Amid the concerns of the CoWIN data breach, the Centre gave clarity on this.
The Union Health Ministry took to Twitter to clarify that no fears are required in this regard as the CoWIN app is completely safe. The Ministry also said that the CoWIN portal has adequate safety measures like Application Firewall, Anti-DDoS, and others.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a press release in which it said that some media reports claiming a breach of data of beneficiaries who have received COVID vaccination in the country, but that is not true as the portal is safe and has safety measures.
"It is clarified that all such reports are without any basis and mischievous in nature. Co-WIN portal of Health Ministry is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy. Furthermore, security measures are in place on Co-WIN portal, with Web Application Firewall, Anti-DDoS, SSL/TLS, regular vulnerability assessment, Identity & Access Management etc. Only OTP authentication-based access of data is provided. All steps have been taken and are being taken to ensure security of the data in the CoWIN portal," the Ministry said.
Clearing the doubts about the leak on the Telegram app, the Ministry said that data of beneficiaries cannot be shared on any BOT unless the OTP is generated. The Ministry also said that the provision of capturing the address of the beneficiary is not possible and only the Year of Birth data is captured for the vaccination.
The media reports on the alleged attack raised many eyeballs and people are concerned about the attack and that their personal details like Aadhar Number, Pan Number, and others might be compromised. Amid the concerns of the CoWIN data breach, the Centre gave clarity on this.
The Union Health Ministry took to Twitter to clarify that no fears are required in this regard as the CoWIN app is completely safe. The Ministry also said that the CoWIN portal has adequate safety measures like Application Firewall, Anti-DDoS, and others.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a press release in which it said that some media reports claiming a breach of data of beneficiaries who have received COVID vaccination in the country, but that is not true as the portal is safe and has safety measures.
"It is clarified that all such reports are without any basis and mischievous in nature. Co-WIN portal of Health Ministry is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy. Furthermore, security measures are in place on Co-WIN portal, with Web Application Firewall, Anti-DDoS, SSL/TLS, regular vulnerability assessment, Identity & Access Management etc. Only OTP authentication-based access of data is provided. All steps have been taken and are being taken to ensure security of the data in the CoWIN portal," the Ministry said.
Clearing the doubts about the leak on the Telegram app, the Ministry said that data of beneficiaries cannot be shared on any BOT unless the OTP is generated. The Ministry also said that the provision of capturing the address of the beneficiary is not possible and only the Year of Birth data is captured for the vaccination.