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On day 21 of the Aadhaar hearings the chief executive officer of the UIDAI, Ajay Bhushan Pandey showcased a presentation to the Supreme Court on the security of the Aadhaar identification system. [caption id=“attachment_4331399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Last date for Aadhaar based verification of mobile connections extended. CNN-News18 image.[/caption] According to the source
@Prasanna_s
and @SFLCin present at the supreme court, the CEO covered four points in his presentation. This would include an introduction to Aadhaar, the technology behind Aadhaar and the privacy safeguards in place. All of the above was to be followed by a short movie on security. Pandey in the Supreme Court explain the security of the Aadhaar identification system explaining that the data is secured using the 2048-bit encryption standard. When quizzed about the use of foreign software to run the database, the CEO of UIDAI explained to the judges that only the biometric match software has been licensed from foreign companies. The idea behind the move was that the match software was the best in the industry. Over the topic of Aadhaar authentication the CEO explained that there has not been a single request from the government to check for biometric data and that the UIDAI has denied giving details to the CBI as well. Pandey also mentioned that while 100 percent authentication success was not possible due to variables like connectivity, machine not working etc. the Aadhaar Act takes care of it.
UIDAI CEO presentation as it happened: Ajay Pandey admits that 100 percent Aadhaar authentication success not possible
The Aadhaar CEO’s presentation would include an introduction to Aadhaar, the technology behind Aadhaar and the privacy safeguards in place. All of the above will be followed by a short movie on security.
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The Aadhaar Authentication System sees 4 crore authentications taking place every day.
Pandey claims that the UIDAI does not collect details about the location, purpose and details of the transactions.
Ajay Bhushan Pandey claims that in the past 1.5 years there has not been a single request from the government to check for biometric data in the Aadhaar system.
Pandey explains that once the data reaches the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) it cannot be shared with anyone.
Odd but true: UIDAI CEO claims that contact center receives almost 1.5 lakhs call every day.
Judge asks that Aadhaar software is not Indian
Pandey explains that only the biometric match software is licensed from foreign companies.
He claims that it comes from best in the industry, stating that the data center consists of 6,000 servers, which according to him is more than enough for the country’s needs.
A slide from the Aadhaar presentation on the enrollment process.
An update on Aadhaar enrollment
CEO of UIDAI claims that the government has taken a decision that Aadhaar enrollments going forward will only be conducted in banks, government offices and post offices.
Claims the cost of an Aadhaar card is less than a dollar.
Pandey also claims that Aadhaar enrollment is taking place in prisons as well.
Ajay Bhushan Pandey agrees that 100% authentication success is not possible.
Judge Chandrachud asks UIDAI CEO about the denial of services, points out how the UIDAI won’t know about it.
UIDAI CEO explains to the judge what need to be done in the case of an Aadhaar database mismatch.
When a person’s biometrics don’t match the Aadhaar database, an error code is sent to the UIDAI who will prompt the person to update their data.
Judge is not convinced about Pandey’s answer.
Judge wants to know how biometric updates for children conducted?
Also asks how does one know that their biometric data has changed?
Even infants can have Aadhaar
Oddly enough, Pandey also claims that some of them misused the biometric exception.
He claims that some of the blacklisted enrollers also registered a tree or hanuman.
The CEO confirms that they used to trust enrollment operators a lot earlier, but this is no longer the case now having become very strict about the same.
Court asks about what happened to the 49,000 blacklisted enrollers?
The judge starts questioning the presentation by Pandey
He claims that biometric data cannot be leaked out both during capture or before transmission.
Pandey claims that all machines used by the enrollment agencies are STQC certified and that the software running on them is provided by the UIDAI.
How secure is Aadhaar?
Ajay Bhushan Pandey explains to the court that the security of the data behind Aadhaar identification is really hard to break with the 2048-bit encryption standard.
UIDAI CEO explains Aadhaar security to the Supreme Court
He starts of by explaining how secure Aadhaar is. He then states that there are 13 modes of Aadhaar authentication with 10 fingers (fingerprint scanning), 2 eyes (iris scanning) and lastly the otp.
Ajaya Bhushan Pandey explaining the features of Aadhaar
Ajaya Bhushan Pandey provides a brief introduction as he commences his presentation