Leaked CoWin details either fake or from some other source. Govt.

New Delhi: Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday reiterated that the personal details of Indian citizens provided by an automated account on the messaging application Telegram were prima facie not leaked from CoWIN app even as the data included the location of their last Covid vaccination. CoWIN is the repository of all data of beneficiaries who have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Chandrashekhar, the minister of state for Electronics and IT, said that the country's nodal cyber security agency CERT-In reviewed the matter and reported that the alleged leaked details were “either fake or had been collected from some other source by some third party threat actor.” He alleged that there are many “forces and interests” in the world that want to undermine the government portal used for vaccination registration.

“I believe that yesterday's alleged breach of CoWIN was one more instance of people trying to target the CoWIN app,” Chandrashekhar said.

“Agency that is tasked with dealing with cybersecurity breaches is investigating the matter. Yesterday prima facie they already reported that the data reported by Telegram bot was not from CoWIN app. Data was either fake or had been collected from some other source by some third party threat actor,” he added