You (Indian Citizens) Are at the Risk of Being Framed

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction.

Ashok is a developer at Infosys. He lives in Indiranagar, Bangalore. One day when he arrived home, he found cops raiding his house. An officer approached him and said, “You are under arrest for the kidnapping of … ”.

Ashok screamed “What?”

His company suspended him immediately. After thorough investigation cops found out Ashok had nothing to do with the kidnapping. The real abductor had forged Ashok’s fingerprint to buy a sim card in his identity.

If you have signed up for Aadhar, this could be your story.

Let’s understand how Aadhar works. Once you enrol in UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) they store your biometrics (fingerprint/iris).

UIDAI has also opened its portal to third parties or private companies. Provided they have your fingerprint, private companies can use UIDAI’s authentication mechanism to remotely verify or sign a document on behalf of you. UIDAI’s computers will only check if the provided fingerprint matches. They don’t verify your physical presence.

Today’s technology allows to clone one’s fingerprint from photos of his/her fingers (Hacker fakes German minister’s fingerprints using photos of her hands). There are several techniques by which one’s fingerprint can be cloned.

Once your fingerprint is cloned. Your identity can be faked, sim cards can be purchased in your name, transactions can be authorised from your bank account, etc. Imagine what happens when Aadhar is tightly integrated to your assets, etc. One can change ownership of your assets. Aadhar provides you with an option to lock your biometrics. How are we supposed to trust them, with their history of negligence?

I hope you now understand the seriousness. It’s not just about your private information being leaked. You are at risk.