UIDAI Says Stringent Processes in Place, Slams Aadhaar Enrolment Software Breach Reports

UIDAI on Thursday said it follows a "stringent enrolment and updation process" for issuance of Aadhaar cards, and has blacklisted over 50,000 operators for various violations, amid reports of a breach in its enrolment software.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said its enrolment software comes with necessary safeguards and checks to protect against any manipulation, as it discredited the claims in the report as "baseless and false".

The statement comes after reports of alleged tampering of the Aadhaar enrolment software and being sold in the black market, which purportedly bypasses operators' biometric authentication and facilitates issuance of Aadhaar cards without any documents.

Emphasising its "zero tolerance policy" when it comes to ensuring security and safety of its processes, UIDAI said that any operator found to be violating its stipulated processes or those indulging in any type of fraudulent or corrupt practices, are blocked, blacklisted and also face stiff financial penalty of up to Rs. 1 lakh per instance.

"Also, all such enrolment attempts get rejected and Aadhaar is not generated. As on date more than 50,000 operators have been blacklisted," the UIDAI added statement said. The UIDAI said its system matches all the biometric, that is all 10 fingerprints and both irides, of a resident enrolling for Aadhaar with the biometrics of all Aadhaar holders before issuing the 12 digit identifier.

"No operator can make or update Aadhaar unless the resident himself or herself gives his or her biometric. Any enrolment or update request is processed only after biometric of resident is authenticated," UIDAI said.

Detailing the stringent processes followed by it, UIDAI said prior to processing of the enrolment or updation activity, the operator's biometric and other parameters are also checked. Only once all checks are found to be successful, enrolment or updation request of resident is further processed.

"Some of the checks include biometric check of operator, validity of operator, enrolment machine, enrolment agency and registrar, which are verified at UIDAI's backend system before further processing is done. In cases where any of the checks fails, the enrolment request gets rejected and action against such operator is taken", UIDAI added.