Bengaluru cyber security firm claims data breach in TN PDS; Aadhaar data up on sale

In yet ar breach of privacy, a Bengaluru-based cybersecurity startup has claimed that personal data, including Aadhaar details, of 31 million Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu were up for sale on a hacker’s platform. founder of Technisanct, Nandakishore Harikumar while addressing issue asserted that vendor is claiming that he was able to breach entire PDS data, which is around 1.9TB.

“We are still assessing depth of breach. In first dump, we identified 4.9 million Aadhaar details being re. Initially, vendor got access to a small amount. It was initially 5 million, later he leaked ar 20 million, and w it is 31 million,” Harikumar added.

State Government informed; CERT looking into matter 

Pointing out that apart from Aadhaar card details, names, addresses, date of birth, makkal number, beneficiary numbers, and phone numbers have also been breached, he asserted that State government and Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) have been informed about it and y are looking into matter. Assuming that  hacker still has access to server, he added, "It could be a server misconfiguration that led to this. But we cant be sure of it as government and ir vendors should find it through forensic and security audits to see how this would have happened."

As per reports, Tamil Nadu government has initiated a probe into  matter, but Chennai-based company which had been providing data service to government has denied any data breach in system.

(Credits-@nanduhari/twitter)