Government restricts access of Aadhaar portal for officials

Following a recent newspaper report stating that the Aadhaar details are available for a little more than Rs 500, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has restricted the access of all designated officials to the Aadhaar portal, reports ET.
 
The number of officials restricted from the access of the portal are around 5,000.
 
"All the privileges given to designated officers for access have been immediately withdrawn," a top government official who didn't want to be named told ET. 
 
As per the report, UIDAI has overhauled its system to enable access only by entering the biometrics of the person whose details were sought to be verified. 
 
The Tribune newspaper reported that Rs 500 was enough to get an administrator-level login ID and password.
 
Earlier, the state governments had authorised limited access to certain government and private officials. According to the official, the system previously allowed a designated officer to view the demographic details of an Aadhaar holder such as name, address, date of birth, etc, by entering the 12-digit unique identity number, so that changes could be made easily. UIDAI gets over 500,000 daily requests for changes, he said. 
 
On the other hand, under the new system, access needs to be authenticated by the fingerprint of the Aadhaar holder and the data available will be restricted to that person, as per ET report.
 
"It may inconvenience some people who wanted speedy access to their details, but the move is expected to prevent future breaches," the official added. 
 
In the wake of the newspaper report, UIDAI has filed a police complaint and had denied that its security protocols were faulty. 
 
UIDAI said on Sunday said that it respected free speech and freedom of the Press and it was not "shooting the messenger." This followed an avalanche of criticism after reports that it had filed a case against the reporter. 
 
Union Minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad twitted: "Govt is fully committed to freedom of Press as well as to maintaining security & sanctity of #Aadhaar for India's development."
 
"FIR is against unknown. I've suggested @UIDAI to request Tribune & its journalist to give all assistance to police in investigating real offenders."
 
UIDAI tweeted in response: "UIDAI is committed to the freedom of Press. We're going to write to @thetribunechd & @rachnakhaira to give all assistance to investigate to nab the real culprits. We also appreciate if Tribune & its journalist have any constructive suggestion to offer." 
 
Harish Khare, editor-in-chief of The Tribune told ET, "We welcome the change in stance of the government. They had also asked us for our comments, which we have sent and also put up on our website. We are ready to help, the whole purpose is to plug the loopholes in the system." In a letter to UIDAI, The Tribune has said, "It is reiterated that complete facts have already been given in the news reports published by The Tribune. We feel sorry that the authorities are unable to appreciate that a breach has taken place. Still, we are more than happy to provide you any such information and will assist UIDAI to maintain the integrity of the Aadhaar data."