NEW DELHI: In yet another embarrassment to TRAI chairman R S Sharma, the ‘ethical hackers’ accessed his bank account details and deposited Rs 1 to him via the Aadhaar-enabled payment service using apps such as BHIM and Paytm.
The hackers also posted the screenshots of the transactions on social media. One user with Twitter handle anivar made the deposit using BHIM mobile app.
Taking a dig at Sharma over his Aadhaar challenge, he tweeted, “My donation to @rssharma3 ‘s aadhaar via BHIM to build Govt systems with better engineering to protect user privacy. You can also join in this #DonateToRSS / #GiveToRamSewak drive.”
The development came a day after a war erupted on Twitter after the telecom watchdog chief on Saturday disclosed his Aadhaar number on the microblogging site and challenged Twitter users to show how the information could be used to harm him, triggering a deluge of tweets that claimed to disclose his personal details.
Denying the data breach, the Aadhaar authority or UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) put out a statement on Sunday insisting that the Aadhaar database “is totally safe” and the “hacked information” was already available in the public domain because Sharma has been in the public service for decades and is easily available on Google and various other sites by a simple search without the Aadhaar number.
Many users had claimed that they got Sharma’s personal details “by hacking Aadhaar database”, but added such a claim was “farce” and that no such information about Sharma has been fetched from either its severs or Aadhaar database. The Aadhaar database is safe, the UIDAI added.