UIDAI rubbishes reports about underground market sale of Aadhaar enrollment software
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today dismissed reports of Aadhaar Enrollment Software being allegedly tampered and sold in the underground market, as totally baseless, false, misleading and irresponsible.
The statement comes after some social media and online news channel reports suggested that key Aadhaar software was available in the black market which purportedly bypasses operators biometric authentication and facilitates making of Aadhaar cards without any documents.
UIDAI in a statement today said that as part of its stringent enrollment and updation process, UIDAI matches all the biometric (10 fingerprints and both iris) of a resident enrolling for Aadhaar with the biometrics of all Aadhaar holders before issuing an Aadhaar. No operator can make or update Aadhaar unless resident himself or herself give his or her biometric. Any enrollment or update request is processed only after biometric of a resident is authenticated.
Also, before processing of the enrollment or update as stated above, enrollment operator ’s biometric and other parameters are checked and only after all checks are found to be successful, enrollment or update of the resident is further processed. Some of the checks include the biometric check of an operator, validity of operator, enrollment machine, enrollment agency, registrar, etc., which are verified at UIDAI’s backend system before further processing is done. In cases where any of the checks fail, the enrollment request gets rejected and action against such operator is taken, said UIDAI.
According to UIDAI, presuming, if at all, by some manipulation attempt at the operator’s end, essential parameters such as operator’s biometrics or resident's biometrics are not captured and enrollment/update packet sent to UIDAI, the same is identified by the backend system of UIDAI, and all such enrollment packets get rejected and no Aadhaar is generated. The concerned enrollment machines and the operators are identified, blocked and blacklisted permanently from UIDAI system. In the appropriate case, police complaints are also filed for such fraudulent attempts.
UIDAI said that it has zero tolerance policy in all its processes including security and safety. All such operators who are found to be violating UIDAI’s strict processes or who indulge in any type of fraudulent or corrupt practices, UIDAI blocks and blacklists them and imposes financial penalty upto Rs. One lakh per instance. Also, all such enrollment attempts get rejected and Aadhaar is not generated. As on date more than 50,000 operators have been blacklisted.
It is also informed that UIDAI keeps adding new security features in its system as required from time to time to take care of the new security threats by unscrupulous elements. It is assured that Aadhaar system is completely safe and secure.
UIDAI has also advised people that they should stay away from unauthorised centres and approach only authorised Aadhaar enrollment centres in bank branches, post offices and Government offices (list of which is published on UIDAI website) to ensure that their enrolment/updation is done only on the authorised machines and their efforts do not get wasted as rejected enrolment/updation.
