As usual, the administration has denied any leak before launching an investigation. The junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s denial has further heightened the anxiety. The minister said that the information made public was not obtained through the Cowin site and that at least some of the personal information disclosed was false. If so, it must be explained how the hack also exposed individuals’ Covid vaccination information, which could only have been stored in the CoWin database.
Source: News Laundry
There have been several instances of private information from numerous e-platforms being leaked. These have ramifications for business, security, and other areas. Public authorities, such as the government, are accountable when leakage occurs from public platforms. In November of last year, The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPFO) experienced a significant data breach.
The AIIMS was the target of a significant hack last year. Data on credit cards and train tickets have also been exposed. The vast array of personal information reportedly stolen from the CoWin site may be exploited in a variety of harmful ways. The information was only given to the authorities for a specific reason, and it was up to them to make sure it was secure. Investigation findings on earlier events have not been made public.
The concept of the right to privacy being a basic right has not been acknowledged and embraced by the government six years after the Supreme Court made that declaration. The government has come under fire for invading individuals’ rights to privacy by monitoring their speech and actions in a variety of ways. Five years after the Srikrishna Committee created a draft data protection law, there is still no legislative framework for data protection.
Source: NEWS9 Live
With more and more areas of life becoming digital, this assumes particular importance. Digitalization is essential for convenience and efficiency reasons. However, it is the duty of the government, which is in charge of the Digital India plan, to make sure that individuals’ personal information is not hacked or used inappropriately.
The 2019-proposed National Cyber Security Strategy has not yet been fully developed. Data breaches should be properly investigated, and action should be taken to close all security vulnerabilities and gaps. But before doing anything else, the government must acknowledge a problem.
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