Cowin User Data Leaked? Govt, Experts Call It Fake, Investigation Commenced

Yesterday, a Twitter handle by the name of @darktracer_int revealed that hackers have got their hands on the CoWin registration data of 150 million citizens across the nation and is being sold for $800 on the dark web.

[ALERT] Dark Leak Market on the DarkWeb has posted a post selling information of 150 Million COVID19 Vaccinated People of India. pic.twitter.com/32Chmcao9W

¡ª DarkTracer : DarkWeb Criminal Intelligence (@darktracer_int) June 10, 2021

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The data included name, contact information, Aadhar ID and even GPS pin-point coordinates of people who have registered on the online vaccination portal. The hackers also reveal that they¡¯re just the resellers of the data and not the actual hackers/leakers.

While this might sound like the worst thing that could happen to anyone who just registered to get vaccinated, reports are also indicating that this might not be true.

Moments after this dark web post went online, cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia on his Twitter handle alerted the Twitterati that the CoWin portal wasn¡¯t hacked and that the post was in fact a scam, ¡°Some Fake #DarkwebLeakMarket are claiming to sell data of 150 Million COVID19 Vaccinated People of India. It's completely fake. It's a Bitcoin Scam. Don't Trust. Check Screenshots. They are listing fake leaks.¡±

This market is frequently posting fake data leaks and scamming people. They are just taking Bitcoin for nothing. Data Sample also not available anywhere.#InfoSec #DataLeak https://t.co/kczBywifcJ

¡ª Rajshekhar Rajaharia (@rajaharia) June 10, 2021

Along with this, he shared a series of screenshots claiming that the dark web portal is commonly known for posting fake data leaks and scamming people in exchange for Bitcoins, ¡°This market is frequently posting fake data leaks and scamming people. They are just taking Bitcoin for nothing. Data Sample also not available anywhere.¡±

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What did the Centre say about this?

According to a report by PTI, the Centre on Thursday has stated that these reports appear to be fake. Regardless, the ministry and the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration are investigating the matter with the Computer Emergency Response Team of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Reuters

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Dr R S Sharma, Chairman of the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration (CoWIN), clarified that "our attention has been drawn towards the news circulating on social media about the alleged hacking of the CoWIN system. In this connection, we wish to state that CoWIN stores all the vaccination data in a safe and secure digital environment. No CoWIN data is shared with any entity outside the CoWIN environment. The data being claimed as having been leaked, such as the geo-location of beneficiaries, is not even collected at CoWIN".