The Centre has dismissed reports that the country’s Covid-19 vaccination platform, Co-WIN portal, being hacked.
However, the union health ministry said the matter of the alleged hacking of the Co-WIN system will be investigated by the Computer Emergency Response Team, known as the government’s best counter-hacking group under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Dr R S Sharma, who heads the CoWIN portal, and is also the Chairman of the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration (EGVAC) has clarified that “the claims of so-called hackers on the dark web, relating to the alleged hacking of the Co-WIN system and data leak, is baseless”.
Sharma asserted that the Centre has continued to take timely initiatives to ensure data of people is safe on the Co-WIN portal.
“We continue to take appropriate steps as are necessary, from time to time, to ensure that the data of the people are safe with Co-WIN,” Sharma added.
Moreover, the Health ministry and EGVAC also denied the report of Co-WIN being hacked, and said, “CoWIN stores all vaccination data in a safe and secure digital environment”.
“There have been some unfounded media reports of the CoWIN platform being hacked. Prima facie, these reports appear to be fake. However, the Health Ministry and the EGVAC are getting the matter investigated by the Computer Emergency Response Team of MietY,” the government said in the statement.
Union Health Ministry & Chairman, Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration confirm that claim of so-called hackers on dark web relating to alleged data leak is baseless.
Currently, Aarogya Setu and Umang app are the only two authorised apps in the country for registering for vaccination. Even in both cases, one needs to log into the Co-WIN portal via the apps for booking vaccination slots.
Recently, a website called Data Leak Market claimed that it was selling a database for Covid-19 vaccination in India. The website said it did not originally leak the data and was merely reselling the data. It claimed that the data of 150 million people also included their name, Aadhaar number, and location.
