Aadhaar is without security support
In one of his campaign speeches, Prime Minister Modi has said though his party is all set to digitize India through technology-empowerment the opposition parties are opposing to that tooth and nail. As usual, the Prime Minister has only spoken the half-truth in this matter. Yes, some of the most technically-informed and sound minds are opposing across-the-board implementation of Aadhar without adequate preparation. And while they are at it, what they are opposing is not the Aadhaar itself, but the misuse of Aadhaar and related data by the agencies which may implement it without full preparation. People are definitely concerned about those forces which are bound to misuse the data from the nation that can be accessed through Aadhaar, to destabilize the democracy that holds it together.
Aadhaar has been in news in the recent times owing to data breach on various fronts through many agencies. Even the Supreme Court has not been able to come to a definite decision on implementation of Aadhar since the court also has apprehensions about the full impact of this. And the central government has been unable to provide satisfactory answer to the concerns raised by the Supreme Court. When the issue is still being debated, how can the Prime Minister harp about Aadhaar being his government’s ambitious step towards implementation of technology?
The 12 digit biometric identity tool Aadhaar has been mired in some controversy or the other ever since it was started in 2009 by the central government. Social activists and digital experts have been raising the security and privacy concerns the system possesses since the very beginning. Agencies of the central government have now made mentioning of Aadhar number compulsory for the beneficiaries of social welfare schemes and filing of tax returns.
Though this has been done despite the issues that remain unresolved, the apprehensions of data relating to Aadhar being collected by third party which can misused, is not without any concrete basis. In the last two years, the Aadhar data has been leaked twice on a massive scale. And some reports have even proved Aadhar data can be bought by third party vendors for a price. Central government itself has admitted that it had provided wrong direction to people about the government’s insistence of attaching Aadhar number to the mobile number.
In his report, independent researcher Kodalli Srinivas had documented about the Aadhar numbers being revealed by Andhra government in 2015-18 of 20,71,913 mothers including those who had their first child. As a response to this, Andhra government has initiated an enquiry jointly with the central government agencies, and verification of various state government websites pertaining to the security features.
The Business Standard magazine had reported last week that the EPFO website was being hacked and data theft had taken place. As a result of this, many websites that help attach Aadhar number to this welfare scheme have been shut down since the last month and half. In Telangana, the website that had details of the State Government Treasuries was being hacked and data relating to account number and Aadhar numbers of the 2.5 lakh beneficiaries were stolen. On earlier occasions, the details of senior beneficiaries that were stolen had created a lot of problems. About 300 Hyderabadis had their data breached owing to weak security systems. In the recent times, the central government in an interview to an English daily had mentioned that the central government had provided wrong information about linking mobile sim with Aadhar to continue with the services as per the Supreme Court rules.
Justice D Y Chandrachud, who is on the bench that’s hearing the Aadhaar security case, had criticized the central government over this stating the central government had ‘used’ SC as a tool to the mobile users to part with their Aadhar number. Before crying victim on Aadhar implementation, the Prime Minister and his team have to answer the genuine concerns raised by experts and citizens on the data safety and security. Any hasty implementation of this most significant tool can be a massive misuse of technology and this would lead to worst results.
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Mumbai police summon Raipur lawyer over death threat to Shah Rukh Khan
Mumbai/Raipur, Nov 7: The Mumbai police have registered an extortion case and summoned a lawyer from Chhattisgarh in connection with a death threat to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and a demand for Rs 50 lakh, officials said on Thursday.
The lawyer from Raipur has been summoned as the threat call was made from a phone number registered in his name, a senior police official from the Chhattisgarh capital said. The lawyer told the police that he lost his phone last week and had filed a police complaint, the official said.
The threat to Shah Rukh Khan follows a series of threats issued to fellow actor Salman Khan, allegedly from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
“The Bandra police station received a call threatening Shah Rukh Khan and asking for Rs 50 lakh. An offence has been registered. No arrest has been made yet,” a senior Mumbai police official said.
A case has been registered by the Bandra police under sections 308(4) (extortion involving threats of death or serious injury) and 351(3)(4) (criminal intimidation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the caller who threatened Shah Rukh Khan, the official said.
Police teams have been dispatched to various places for further investigation, he said.
While there was no confirmation from Mumbai police on reports that the call was made from Chhattisgarh, a Raipur police official said their counterparts from the Maharashtra capital on Thursday served a notice to a man from the city in connection with it.
As part of their investigation into the threat to Shah Rukh Khan, Mumbai police visited Raipur and summoned a lawyer, identified as Faizan Khan, who lives within the limits of Pandri police station here, Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.
Police had earlier identified the man as Faiyaz Khan.
As per preliminary information, the threat call to the actor was made from a phone number registered in the name of Faizan, he said.
Faizan has been asked to appear for questioning at Bandra police station, Singh said.
A Mumbai police team arrived at Pandri police station in the morning and informed the officials about the case following which Faizan was called for questioning, City Superintendent of Police (CSP- Civil Lines) Ajay Kumar told PTI.
Faizan told the cops that he had lost his phone last week and lodged a complaint at Khamardih police station here, he said. Mumbai police have served a notice to Faizan and summoned him for further questioning, the official added.
Later, talking to reporters in Raipur, Faizan claimed that his phone was stolen and termed the threat call made from his number a conspiracy against him.
“My phone was stolen on November 2 and I lodged a complaint. I told Mumbai police about it. They interrogated me for about two hours,” he said.
He, however, said he had earlier complained to Mumbai police against Shah Rukh Khan over a dialogue in his movie ‘Anjaam’ (1994) referring to deer hunting.
“I hail from Rajasthan. The Bishnoi community (which is from Rajasthan) is my friend. It is in their religion to protect deer. So, if a Muslim says something like this about deer, it is condemnable. Therefore, I raised an objection,” he said.
Faizan added, “Whoever has made a call from my phone, it seems intentional. I think it is a conspiracy against me.”
