Aadhaar breach exposes holes in ecosystem

Over 400 empanelled agencies and hundreds of their sub-units use biometrics for authentication

Recently, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) filed a criminal case against unknown persons after it found that biometric details of individuals were illegally stored and used for carrying out unauthorised transactions. Recent incidents of alleged storage of biometrics and its subsequent unauthorised use has exposed vulnerabilities in the Aadhaar ecosystem. The expose is alarming as the government and private agencies perform large-scale financial transactions and authenticate individuals using their Aadhaar number and biometric details daily.

The UIDAI is the repository of biometric details of more than 1.1 billion Indians and allows more than 400 empanelled authorised user agencies