CoWin not directly breached: Rajeev Chandrasekhar on reports of Covid vaccination app

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, reacting to the claim of the data breach that struck the Covid vaccination app CoWin, said that the app or the database has not been directly breached. He said that a review by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (under the IT Ministry) has found that the compromised Telegram bot seems to have been populated by previously stolen data.

Today, as per a report by The Fourth News, the personal information of Indian citizens, including their Aadhaar and PAN card details uploaded on the CoWin is available on social media platform Telegram. The same was also flagged by Opposition leaders including TMC's Saket Gokhale. As per the report, whenever a mobile number registered with the app is entered into the Telegram bot, it throws the personal information of the user.

As per different media reports, the list of people whose data has been leaked includes Union Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan, DMK MP (member of Parliament) Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and former Union minister of health Harsh Vardhan of the BJP, and Telangana’s IT minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR).

Further in his tweet, Chandrasekhar said that the National Data Governance policy has been finalised and that it will lay down the common framework for data storage, access, and security standards.

In 2021, a hacker group called Dark Leak Market claimed that it has access to CoWin database containing details of 15 crore Indians who registered on the portal. Back then, Dr RS Sharma, who heads the CoWin portal refuted the claims, calling the claims baseless. 

Further, last week premier health institution suffered a cyber attack. AIIMS Delhi spokesperson said that the institute was able to thwart the attack on its eHospital services and it was to working normally.