TRAI chairman challenged to hack his Aadhar, hackers hacked and deposited Re1

On most occasions, carelessness attitude leads to endless regrets for each decision you take in the digital world. You need to be cautious not to leak any personal data to hackers. It is learnt that social media giants like Facebook and microblogging site like Tumblr easily fell prey to hackers.

Not just that, even hackers can easily rip through the ATMs as well. Not a long ago, around 40,000 customer’s credit card details were stolen from the China-based smartphone popularly called as OnePlus. Hackers inject a malicious software one plus payment page and thereby recording to steal all credit card details.

Credits: Google

Talking about the recent news, Ethical hackers, on Sunday claimed to have the complete bank details of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman R S Sharma and even uploaded the same on Twitter. Users also attached screenshots of sending Rs. 1 to Sharma through the Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Service using applications like BHIM and Paytm and also through IMPS. Apart from those details, they even posted the transaction IDs.

This came right after when chairman posted his Aadhaar number. ‘7621 7768 2740’ on Saturday and challenging Aadhaar critics to do him anything harmful if they could. However, TOI could not independently assure any of Sharma’s data.

However, on Sunday, the ethical hackers- Elliot Alderson. Pushpendra Singh, Kanishk Sajnani, Anivar Arvind and Karan Saini cited that nearly 14 items had been leaked so far. The confidential details include Sharma’s mobile numbers, residential address, date of birth. PAN number, voter ID number. telecom operator. phone model, and Air India frequent flyer ID.

They also claimed to have the chairman’s bank account number and IFSC code for 5 other accounts namely Punjab National Bank, Bank of India. SBI (joint account), Kotak Mahindra and ICICI Bank. Anivar Aravind and others sent Rs 1 to his Bank of India account through AEPS. Twitter users warned the chairman that the means to send money to him without his permission could expose him to blackmail, money laundering and other dangers.

One must remember that Ethical hackers are those who use tricks to hack into computer networks to test their security, instead of malicious or criminal intent. Aadhaar issuing body, popularly known as UIDAI on Sunday repeated that Aadhaar was safe and secure.

French security expert named Elliot Alderson suggested Sharma to alter his Gmail password as it had been hacked. But Sharma tweeted: “No. Why should I change? It is working fine! Even if you hack, it is not because of Aadhaar!”

The TRAI chairman retweeted the tweets from his followers – Amarendra Joshi (also followed by Narendra Modi’s official handle) who posted their Aadhaar numbers. Sharma retweeted one Bharath Vasi’s tweet: “A tight slap to all the hyperactive privacy paranoids!! The self-proclaimed hackers, who are showing his mobile. PAN numbers & address data, can’t they hack such info without knowing his Aadhaar? Surely they can obtain! Then why blame frAadhaar?”

Several anti-Aadhaar tweets cited that those exposing the data are ethical hackers and cannot use it to harm Sharma.

The hackers can easily buy sim card under your name using your fingerprint or maybe sometimes they can commit the crime and leave one’s fingerprints there. If there is any chance if they can hack Aadhar database then this move is easily possible.

Hailing from Chennai, Chaithanya G is the Managing Director of TheYouth. He has dedicated his whole life to reading and writing.