Universe's strength needed to break Aadhaar encryption: CEO to SC; updates

Aadhaar would include face ID besides the fingerprints and iris for authentication from July 1, said UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey

Trying to allay the fears over security and privacy of Aadhaar, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal agency implementing the project, told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it would take the world’s fastest computer “the whole universe’s strength to break the Aadhaar encryption system”.

In a first-ever powerpoint presentation in open court, the constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and Justice A K Sikri, Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan was told that Aadhaar data in an encrypted form were "very