AADHAAR DATA BREACH
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AADHAAR DATA BREACH
DATE : MARCH 2018 NUMBER OF RECORDS COMPROMISED : 1.1BN PEOPLE
Aadhaar is a government programme first launched in 2009 , where all residents of India have a 12-digit unique identity number based on their biometric data .
Unfortunately in 2018 , a faulty Aadhaar software patch was released and provided users with elevated access levels and allowed them to bypass critical security features such as iris scan and GPS location verification . This vulnerability ultimately exposed the entire database , which at the time contained about 1.2 billion records .
Reports at the time suggested that the encryption mechanisms in place by Aadhaar were insufficient , access controls were too lax and security protocols were outdated . As a result , these vulnerabilities enabled malicious actors to exploit and compromise sensitive data . cybermagazine . com 47