Asianet NewsableAsianet Newsable

Hacker stuns Bengaluru cops with his demonstration of accessing Aadhaar information illegally

  • IIT Kharagpur alumnus Abhinav Srivastava was arrested for accessing secure information from Aadhaar databases
  • He then created an app on Google Play Store where he uploaded the information for public use
  • Srivastava stunned investigators during the six-hour demonstration, which was video-graphed by cybercrime cops
Hacker stuns Bengaluru cops with his demonstration of illegally accessing Aadhaar information

Abhinav Srivastava, the 31-year-old IIT Kharagpur alumnus who was arrested for accessing secure information from Aadhaar databases, gave a six-hour demonstration to Bengaluru police as to how he had managed to hack into Aadhaar data stored on a government website on Saturday, August 5.

Srivastava, an MSc graduate from IIT-Kharagpur, was recently arrested for allegedly hacking into e-hospital server hosted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), a KYC user agency (KUA) which has tied up with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for Aadhaar authentication services. 

He then created an app on Google Play Store where he uploaded the information for public use. 

"He said the absence of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) from the URL helped him hack into the e-hospital website. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)," a source told Times of India, adding that the entire revelation was recorded on video camera. 

"All communications between the browser and the website were not encrypted. HTTPS is often used to protect highly confidential online transactions like banking and shopping order forms," the source further added.

Srivastava was asked to explain how he hacked into the government website to access Aadhaar data and stunned investigators during the six-hour demonstration, which was video-graphed by cybercrime cops.

Srivastava says that he developed the app to give out e-KYC details, thinking it would help the common man access Aadhaar information. He says that he had no malicious intent. 

"He's trying to convince us that he is not a hardcore criminal but that can only be decided after the investigation is over," a Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuth said. 

CCB confiscated four laptops and a hard disk from Srivastava and will send it to the forensic science laboratory.

Follow Us:
Download App:
  • android
  • ios