As India positions itself as a staunch advocate of Digital Public Infrastructures at the international level, developments such as this data leak are a stark reminder of the gap between the rhetoric and reality associated with DPIs.
Delhi Police has nabbed a man in connection with the suspected data breach of the CoWin portal, with the Delhi Police Special Cell also detaining a minor. Centre has denied the breach of its CoWin database, which has registered 1.11 billion individuals and administered 2.21 billion doses.
Last week, reports surfaced on a purported breach of data of beneficiaries registered on the CoWIN platform. The data had been accessed by a Telegram bot which revealed data such as gender, DOB, Aadhar card, address, centre for vaccination etc.