Biometric attendance: Karnataka Medical Colleges share concern on safety of data

Bengaluru: Just on the day when India reported that ICMR data of 81.5 Crore people had been breached, Karnataka Medical College authorities were seen showing concern on the safety of the biometrics data.

Medical Colleges in Bengaluru and other districts in Karnataka are concerned with the biometric details of their faculties being used to mark attendance and the details being shared through multiple levels.

Earlier, the Karnataka CID cybercrime and Bengaluru city police commissioner appealed to the people to use a locking feature in the Aadhaar portal or app in order to ensure that fraudsters are unable to misuse Aadhaar biometrics.

Using the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS), any individual can get access to his/her bank account and transfer money. Referring to this, a police official added, "Fraudsters with access to others' Aadhaar credentials, including biometric data, siphon off money from accounts. They neither need an SMS, nor an OTP authentication to empty the accounts completely."

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that with an aim to find an effective and convenient digital solution to record the attendance of faculties, NMC had directed all the medical colleges to implement AEBAS.

Time and again NMC issued warnings to medical colleges for non-implementation of the AEBAS system, which was also introduced with an aim to put an end to the practice of ghost faculties in medical colleges.

Also Read: NMC warns Medical Colleges against non implementation of Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System, HMIS, CCTV connection

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, sources in the medical education department informed that due to these guidelines, all colleges have shared their Aadhaar biometrics with the Apex Medical Commission and now the staff use their Aadhaar numbers and biometrics to mark their daily attendance.

However, the management and administrators of medical colleges are now worried with this process of their Aadhaar biometrics being used for marking attendance. Commenting on this, a faculty member from one of the medical colleges in Bengaluru told TOI, "With all our biometric details being shared through multiple levels, all of us are in danger and we have brought this to the notice of our respective deans and requested them to take it up at the university level."

"We are now stuck in a chicken-and-egg kind of scenario. Police are advising us to lock our biometric features in the wake of Aadhaar-enabled Payment System Fraud (AePSF). But if we lock biometrics, we cannot mark our attendance and will be at the receiving end for being absentees," mentioned a faculty member from another medical college in the city.

Meanwhile, a principal of a Bengaluru-based medical college mentioned that after successfully creating the AEBAS IDs for the faculties, they are now considering extending the same facility for all the Undergraduate and Postgraduate medical students as well.

"We are awaiting orders from the higherups to roll out the same attendance system for students as well. However, cybercrime incidents make us think twice before going ahead with the plan. When all of us are using Aadhaar-based attendance, how can we afford to lock the features and remain absent at work?" added the principal.

One the one hand, while medical colleges are expressing concern about sharing the data of their faculties, the officials from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) confirmed that they have not received any complaints from the medical colleges affiliated with it addressing such concerns.

Commenting on this, the Vice-Chancellor of RGUHS, MK Ramesh added, "No medical college in Karnataka has complained to us about this problem. Nevertheless, the university will take note of the problem and look into it, given the seriousness of the rising incidents of cybercrime."

Also Read: Ghost Faculty, inadequate infrastructure: Experts question why certain medical colleges are even allowed to operate