CoWIN data leaked! Telegram bot made phone number, Aadhaar and other details public: Report

By Team Newsable | First Published Jun 12, 2023, 4:54 PM IST

Personal information of Indian citizens, including Aadhaar and PAN card details, are reportedly available on Telegram due to a data breach caused by the CoWIN portal. The Telegram bot was suspended on Monday morning. The leaked data is reportedly available on social media platform Telegram and can now be accessed by any user.

A Telegram bot exposed phone numbers, Aadhaar numbers, Dates of Birth (DoB), and other crucial information for everyone who received vaccinations through the CoWIN platform, making it one of the biggest data breaches in Indian history.

In essence, this implies that everybody who had the COVID vaccination in India during the previous three years runs the danger of having their private information exposed to the public. The Telegram bot, which shared information about everyone who had vaccinations in India and was probably active for days, was suspended on Monday morning.

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The bot shared: Name, phone number, Aadhaar Number or Passport Number, Voter ID if available, Place of vaccination, Date of Birth and (In some cases) Home address. However, before it was suspended, the bot shared details of people who took the COVID vaccine in India whenever they were prompted with a phone number.

Reports suggest that the bot drew in the information for every person who had gotten the vaccine by using a certain number. Thus, if the number was used to register the entire family for vaccinations, for instance, information about every family member would be available.

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In 2021, reports emerged that CoWIN portal got hacked, and resulted in the sale of the database of 15 crore people. However, cyber security researchers denied the claim. In fact, in January this year, RS Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority vouched for the CoWIN portal. He tweeted, "CoWIN has state-of-the-art security infrastructure and has never faced a security breach. Data of our citizens is absolutely "safe" and "secure". Any news about data leaks from CoWIN holds no merit".

has state-of-the-art security infrastructure and has never faced a security breach. Data of our citizens on CoWIN is absolutely and . Any news about data leaks from CoWIN holds no merit.

— Dr. RS Sharma (@rssharma3)

Already, WhatsApp, OTP, and bank scams are rising in India. With more details like date of birth and Aadhaar number widely available, chances are that most people will face the risk of more sophisticated online and WhatsApp scams.

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