Health Ministry denies reports claiming CoWIN data breach, says will start probe

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Friday clarified that no data has leaked from its CoWIN portal, soon after reports emerged that personal data of thousands of Indians got leaked from a 'government server.

"It is clarified that no data has leaked from the Co-WIN portal and the entire data of residents is safe and secure on this digital platform," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Also Read:1 crore plus healthcare workers engaged in Covid-19 work, registered with Co-Win App

The ministry said that it will look into the substance of the reports, as prima facia it doesn't seem correct.

"It is also clarified that while the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will enquire into the substance of the news, prima facie the assertion is not correct, as Co-WIN collects neither the address of the person nor the RT-PCR test results for Covid-19 vaccination," said the ministry.

It also tweeted, "We are getting the matter examined. However, prima facie it appears that the alleged leak is not related to Co-WIN as we neither collect any information on address or the Covid-19 status of beneficiaries".

Earlier in the day, cyber security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia Rajaharia had said in a tweet, "PII including Name, MOB, PAN, Address etc of #Covid19 #RTPCR results & #Cowin data getting public through a Govt CDN. #Google indexed almost 9 Lac public/private #GovtDocuments in search engines. Patient's data is now listed on #DarkWeb. Need fast deindex."

In another tweet, he said: "I am not reporting any #Vulnerability here. I am asking people to #Beware for any Fraud #calls/#offers/#treatment etc related to pre/post #Covid19. The data is already up for sale on a #DarkWeb Forum."

Also Read:FIR against Gurugram hospital for allegedly charging fees without administering COVID jab