Indian govt rejects French ethical hacker's claims, confirms Aarogya Setu app has no security breach
New Delhi/IBNS: The Indian government on Wednesday said its coronavirus tracking app Aarogya Setu has no security breach.
The government made the comments after an alleged French ethical hacker said the privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake.
"Hi @SetuAarogya A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private? Regards, PS: @RahulGandhi was right," the hacker whose Twitter handle is named Elliot Anderson tweeted.
Hi @SetuAarogya,
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 5, 2020
A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private?
Regards,
PS: @RahulGandhi was right
Reacting to the claim, the Indian government said in a statement: "No personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk."
Basically, you said "nothing to see here"
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 5, 2020
We will see.
I will come back to you tomorrow. https://t.co/QWm0XVgi3B
"We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems," read the statement.
Do you know what triangulation is @SetuAarogya?
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 5, 2020
The government said it wants to assure people that no data or security breach has been identified.
In his last tweet, the hacker said: " Do you know what triangulation is@SetuAarogya?"
The App, called ‘AarogyaSetu’, enables people to assess themselves the risk of their catching the Corona Virus infection.
It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence, the Indian government earlier said in a statement.
Once installed in a smart phone through an easy and user-friendly process, the app detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installed that come in the proximity of that phone.
The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on parameters if any of these contacts has tested positive.
The personal data collected by the App is encrypted using state-of-the-art technology and stays secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention.
Available in 11 languages, the App is ready for pan-India use from day-1 and has highly scalable architecture.
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