In response to reports of an alleged data breach on the CoWIN platform, Rajeev Chandrasekhar the Minister of State for IT stated on Monday that it does not appear that the Cowin app or database has been directly breached and that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) responded immediately and reviewed the matter.
He also stated that the National Data Governance policy, which will create a common framework of data storage, access, and security standards in the country, has been finalized.
“With reference to some alleged Cowin data breaches reported on social media, @IndianCERT has responded immediately and reviewed this,” Chandrasekhar tweeted. According to him, a Telegram Bot was displaying Cowin app details when phone numbers were entered.
“The data accessed by a bot from a threat actor database, which appears to be populated with previously breached/stolen data stolen in the past.” “It does not appear that the Cowin app or database has been directly compromised,” the minister clarified.
The clarification came after earlier reports of a CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) data breach, which allegedly allowed access to certain personal information that an individual provided on the government’s vaccination portal.
According to reports and social media posts, information such as a person’s phone number, gender, ID card information, date of birth, Aadhaar last four digits, and the name of the centre where the vaccine was received was also leaked on the channel.
