On Monday, June 12, a portion of the Indian media revealed that the messaging app Telegram has access to the personal information/data of those who have registered with the Covid vaccination portal CoWin. A Telegram bot has reportedly been disclosing information about people who registered for vaccinations, including their names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and other information provided at the time of registration, such as passport or Aadhar numbers, among other things. According to a report by the Kerala-based Malayala Manorama, Telegram instantly responded with the aforementioned information if the user’s telephone number was entered. The details could be accessed even if the Aadhar number was entered instead of the mobile number, the report added.
The data breach also exposed the personal information of numerous well-known Indian journalists and politicians
People that upgraded CoWin for international travel had their passport numbers leaked. According to the Manorama article, information about all family members who joined the website under a single phone number was also made available on Telegram. The data breach also exposed the personal information of numerous well-known Indian journalists and politicians. Saket Gokhale, the leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), posted screenshots of the hacked journalists’ and politicians’ personal information on Twitter.
“There has been a MAJOR data breach of Modi Govt where personal details of ALL vaccinated Indians including their mobile nos., Aadhaar numbers, Passport numbers, Voter ID, Details of family members, etc. have been leaked & are freely available,” Gokhale tweeted and slammed the central government of not being aware of the leak and not informing citizens about the same. “Who has the Modi Govt given access to sensitive personal data of Indians incl Aadhaar & Passport nos. which enabled this leak?” the TMC leader added and called the breach “a matter of serious national concern.”