WannaCry Ransomware: Aadhaar Completely Safe, Says UIDAI

Allaying concerns about the security of data in Aadhaar servers in the wake of WannaCry ransomware attack, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday said its database was completely secured and immune to attacks from any kind of malware.

"The data in the Aadhaar servers is in the encrypted form. You cannot do anything with that information, which is in an encrypted form. Aadhaar main systems, which are really so very well-designed and robustly designed that there is no concern about security in Aadhaar," UIDAI chairman J Satyanarayana said.

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UIDAI presently maintains the data of about 114 crore Indians in over 6,000 servers located in Bengaluru and Manesar.

"Just 48 hours back we had big scare all over the world about this ransomware. So, in Aadhaar, people were sleeping peacefully (as they are sure of its security features)... that it is 100 percent sure that nothing would happen. Such robust systems were put in place in Aadhaar," he said in a programme organised by the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers.

He said the government has spent Rs. 7,000 crores on establishment of Aadhaar and reaped benefits of over Rs. 50,000 crores in the form of weeding out bogus beneficiaries of government schemes.

"We are geared up to do 10 crore transactions per day. And we are increasing up to 40 crore transactions per day. Our servers are capable of taking that load," he further said.

According to Satyanarayana, the Telangana government has saved Rs. 55.7 crores between January and July 2016 by deleting 38.63 lakh duplicate or ghost ration cards units using Aadhaar authentication while Andhra Pradesh saved 4,03,142 tonnes of rice and 5,000 kilo litres of kerosene by reducing 8.58 lakh cards.

He said Reliance Jio is one of the largest private players which used Aadhaar data for its subscribers.