CoWIN portal completely safe: Health Ministry amid data leak claims

Data leak on Telegram: There are some media reports claiming breach of data of beneficiaries who have received COVID vaccination in the country, on some social media platforms. It is clarified that all such reports are without any basis and mischievous in nature. 

The Union Health Ministry has stated that reports of an allegedly breached CoWIN portal claiming that personal information, including Aadhaar and passport details, phone number, date of birth, and gender, was available on a Telegram (online messenger application) bot for a short while are "without any basis and mischievous in nature." In its statement, the Ministry said: "Co-WIN portal of Health Ministry is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy."

The statement comes after a report claimed that sensitive personal information of politicians, bureaucrats, and individuals - who had signed up on CoWIN - was shared by a bot account on Telegram.

“The Co-WIN portal of Health Ministry is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy. All steps have been taken and are being taken to ensure security of the data in the CoWIN portal," the ministry said.

Responding to the claims, Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter and said that a Telegram bot was throwing up CoWIN app details upon entry of phone numbers. "The data being accessed by a bot from a threat actor database, which seems to have been populated with previously breached/stolen data stolen from past," the Union minister stated.

A National Data Governance strategy, which would provide a uniform framework for data storage, access, and security requirements across all government platforms, was also announced by Chandrasekhar.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) established, owns, and manages COWIN, a database that contains all the information on beneficiaries who have received Covid-19 vaccinations.