In a significant data breach, the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Indian individuals who received the COVID-19 vaccine has been leaked on a Telegram channel. The leaked data includes sensitive details such as phone numbers, gender, ID card information, and dates of birth, all of which could be accessed by using a Telegram bot and entering a person’s name.
According to The Fourth News, a Malayalam news portal, documents related to the registered mobile numbers on the CoWin portal are available on the channel, allowing access to information regarding the administered vaccine and vaccination location.
Prominent individuals affected by this breach include Telangana’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR), DMK Member of Parliament Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, BJP Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, and former Union Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan from the BJP.
Expressing concern, Member of Parliament Supriya Sule demanded immediate clarification from the government and urged them to hold those responsible for the breach accountable.
The Union Health Ministry had initially denied the news of the information leak, but reports in June 2021 had previously indicated a similar breach involving the vaccination data of 150 million Indians.
Sharing evidence of the leak on Twitter, MP Karti Chidambaram criticized the government’s negligence towards citizen privacy and questioned why the implementation of a data protection law was being delayed. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the concerned authority, called the government to address this issue.
