Data breach in Andhra Pradesh again, 4.5 crore citizen's details exposed
U Sudhakar Reddy | TNN | Jun 19, 2018, 22:17 IST
HYDERABAD: In yet another significant instance of breach of data of citizens, AP government has put up the details of citizens online. If someone knows the Aadhaar number of a person, they can use it to understand several aspects of the citizens collected by AP Government as part of Praja Sadhikhara Survey (Smart Pulse Survey).
Security researchers say that the website technically has 4.5 crore peoples data.
Data security researcher Srinivas Kodali on Tuesday notified the government of AP regarding the free access to the data by typing the number.
Browsing the link http://push73.sps.ap.gov.in/spsnew/MIS_Out_New/MIS_ONStatus/ and filling Aadhaar number would reveal the mobile number, name and other demographic details of persons.
After the notification by the data researcher, AP government has suspended the link.
Srinivas Kodali told TOI, "I have reported the security issue to the AP government. Just visiting the link and entering a number will give the information. The website has 4.5 crore peoples data, and all the details of the survey are here. The data is about smart pulse survey. The survey started in July 2016 and is ongoing. Earlier when similar breach happened, officials brought down the site."
Previously the details of people including family, housing location by geo-tagging and caste details at cluster /booth level were available.
The AP government has been updating the pulse survey data of residents of the state since 2016 with an e-KYC based verification system linked to Aadhaar.
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Advisor of Information Technology to AP government J Satyanarayana has reiterated that the data security has been a constant process and it has been strengthening by the government.
When contacted UIDAI authorities, they were not available for comment.