In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Monday, January 15, 2018

12752 - Beef up Aadhaar security - The Asian Age

THE ASIAN AGE. | DR G.V.K. REDDY
Published : Jan 14, 2018, 3:28 am IST


UIDAI must take steps to have multiple key holders.

The possibility of insider attacks could be the most dangerous threat to the Aadhaar ecosystem. (Photo: PTI)

Right from its inception, the Aadhaar project has been and continues to be questioned as it violates privacy and data security issues. The issue has taken the centre stage like never before after an expose by a journalist. Though UIDAI has denied any such breach, its defence has been at best ambiguous. The core of Aadhaar is Central Identities Database Repository (CIDR) may be strong by design. However, its support systems, processes, and wider ecosystems are exposed with open access to any government authorised or private entities.

Some crucial lacunae in the identification and authentication processes of Aadhaar have been pointed out by Center for Internet and Society. Some possible ways of breach are correlation of identities across domains, identification without consent using Aadhaar data, and illegal tracking of individuals.

The possibility of insider attacks could be the most dangerous threat to the Aadhaar ecosystem. It could also come under attack if the attacker can collude with an insider with access to various components of the Aadhaar system - something akin to the recent breach aided by the involvement of an insider. Though an FIR has been filed with the police, there is no information UIDAI taking any action against either government or private employees. According to various studies on Aadhaar ecosystem, there are no safeguards or guidelines - either technical or legal - on how the Aadhaar number should be maintained and how it should be used by Authentication User Agencies (AUA) in a cryptographically secure way, and how to prevent the Aadhaar number of an individual from becoming public.

MEASURES AGAINST INSIDER ATTACKS
Apart from the implementation of recommendations of Shah and Sinha committees, UIDAI could appoint independent third-parties who can individually perform the roles of an auditor and a keeper of Cryptographic keys. The separation of administrative control can strengthen security of the overall system.

Other techniques that can be used are: 1) To store only hash of biometric data, 2) Tamper-resistant code to avoid arbitrary behaviour, 3) Tamper- resistant hardware may be leveraged for protection of cryptographic keys, and 4) Whiteboxing and encryption methods.

Virtual ID
UIDAI has introduced a system of virtual authentication for citizens enrolled on its database and limited the access available to service providers in a move aimed at allaying widespread concern over security breaches that have dogged the UIDAI central repository.  Significant security upgrades announced by UIDAI is to create a "virtual ID" which can be used in lieu of 12-digit aadhaar number. Some database with Aadhaar numbers will still float around unless there is complete revocation of the number. For trust to prevail tokenisation should be implemented across all data controllers including Authentication User Agencies. This concept will also prevent combining and correlating of databases across domains that are linked to Aadhaar number.

VULNERABILITY
One of the vulnerability is making copies of fingerprints, By law, one should not store copies of fingerprints. However, it is hard to spot vulnerabilities embedded in thousands of lines of code. Though biometric sensors "are increasingly implementing liveness detection to ensure any attempt at making fake fingers and iris are prevented." It is not clear if biometric readers certified by UIDAI have been tested for liveness detection.

(The writer is a professor at Vardhaman College of Engineering)