Bengaluru: 31-yr-old techie arrested for accessing Aadhaar data

coastaldigest.com news network
August 4, 2017

Bengaluru, Aug 4: Bengaluru city police has arrested a young techie on the charge of accessing Aadhaar data following a complaint filed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) last week.

The arrested is Abhinav Srivastav, 31, an IIT-Kharagpur graduate, who is currently employed by ANI Technologies, which owns the Ola brand, as a software development engineer. He has been accused of accessing Aadhaar information in January 2017 through an app named ‘Aadhaar e-KYC’, which was available on the Google Play store till recently.

Police said Srivastav had developed five apps and made ₹40,000 from advertisements displayed on them. Police are now scanning all his apps to see whether more violations were committed. The Aadhaar e-KYC app was downloaded over 50,000 times from the Google Play store since its launch in January, the police said.

City Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar said that based on the complaint, six teams of police comprising 26 personnel were formed to nab Srivastav and they tracked him down to Koramangala after a week. He has been accused of using the services of another app, ‘e-hospital’, which is listed as an authenticated user agency (AUA) authorised to access UIDAI data.

A senior police officer said there were around 400 entities that have been authorised to access the data for authentication. Srivastav’s company was not among those authorised.

A native of Kanpur, Srivastav completed his M.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry from IIT-Kharagpur and joined a private firm in 2010 as a security researcher. He launched Qarth technologies in 2012 and shut it down in 2016 owing to financial reasons. In March 2016, Ola announced that it had acquired Qarth and its mobile payments product, X-Pay. Srivastav then joined another private firm before joining ANI Technologies last year.

Investigation revealed that the e-hospital company is not aware of his activities. However, further probe is on to ascertain the facts.

The ability of a software engineer to bypass strict protocols set in place by the UIDAI to access critical data puts the spotlight firmly on the security measures employed to protect Aadhaar data.

Police investigation have revealed that Srivastav had piggy-backed on the infrastructure of another app for hacking the data base.

“Aadhaar related information, legally housed by the National Informatics Centre server, was illegally and without authorisation accessed and used to support this mobile application,” said the police statement.

Srivastav, in order to give his ‘Aadhaar e-KYC’ app an air of authenticity, hacked into the server of the NIC, which houses the e-hospital system, which is a solution for government hospitals to handle patient care and other services, including medical records management.

As part of its regulations, the UIDAI accords certain agencies the title of an AUA, which can then provide Aadhaar-enabled services to the cardholder. For authentication, these agencies have to connect to the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) through the services of a Authentication Service Agency (ASA). ASAs are bound by regulations that stipulate encryption of data and logging of access.

The 'e-hospital’ platform had access as a registered AUA. Srivastav used this server to route his app requests for data access and managed to steal the data, the police said.

Question raised

In 2016, a paper titled ‘Privacy and Security of Aadhaar: A Computer Science Perspective’ by the Computer Science and Engineering Department of IIT-Delhi raised the question of leakage of Aadhaar number from an AUA.

The paper, which also discusses several other possible threat scenarios, said, “This, however, does not fully mitigate the risks and the possibility of leakage of the Aadhaar number from an AUA, either from the database, or during “Know Your Customer” (KYC) processes, or even during availing services, cannot be ruled out. In particular, there appear to be no safeguards or even guidelines, either technical or legal, on how the Aadhaar number should be maintained and used by various AUAs in a cryptographically secure way, and how to prevent the Aadhaar number of an individual from becoming public.”

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News Network
November 21,2025

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Local authorities say the Israeli military has expanded the so-called “yellow line” truce demarcation in Gaza City and repositioned its forces deeper into the territory in violation of a ceasefire agreement that came into force on October 10, besieging dozens of Palestinian families.

Gaza’s Government Media Office announced in a statement on Thursday that Israeli forces widened the boundary by shifting the markers, and advanced roughly 300 meters (984 feet) into the neighborhoods of Ash-Shaaf, An-Nazzaz and Baghdad Street.

The move pushed further into civilian areas, trapping families who were unable to flee as tanks rolled forward, it added.

“The fate of many of these families remains unknown amidst the shelling that targeted the area,” the office said, adding that the expansion of the yellow line shows a “blatant disregard” for the ceasefire deal.

On Friday, sources said the Israeli military carried out continued air and artillery strikes inside the so-called “yellow line” east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to the reports, Israeli warplanes and tanks targeted areas within the zone. One Palestinian was reported killed and several others wounded in the strikes, the sources said.

The fresh aggression came only a day after 25 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis on Wednesday.

The media office reported that Israel has consistently violated the truce deal since its implementation last month, with near-daily attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings.

The office said over 400 violations have been documented. These breaches have resulted in the deaths of more than 300 Palestinians and left hundreds injured.

The Government Media Office in Gaza urged the guarantors of the ceasefire — the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey — to take swift action to halt the ongoing violations and facilitate the delivery of food, shelter materials, medical aid, and infrastructure equipment.

The so-called “yellow line,” set out in the agreement between Israel and Hamas resistance movement, refers to a non-physical partition where the Israeli military repositioned itself when the truce deal took effect.

It has allowed Israel, which routinely fires at Palestinians who approach the line, to retain control over more than half of the Gaza Strip.

International bodies, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and other rights groups, have concluded that the Israeli war on Gaza amounts to genocide.

In the attacks in Gaza since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 69,546 people and injured 170,833 others, leveling large swaths of the territory and displacing almost all of the population. 

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coastaldigest.com news network
November 28,2025

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Udupi district transformed into a sea of saffron and celebration on Friday, November 28, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow swept through the coastal temple town. Thousands of residents lined the streets, turning the event into a vibrant public spectacle filled with cheers, flags, and festive energy.

The procession route—from the helipad to the historic Sri Krishna Math—was decked with buntings, saffron flags, and multilayered security barricades. One of the district’s largest-ever security deployments was put in place for the high-profile visit, with over 3,000 police personnel on duty. The arrangement included ten SPs, 27 DSPs, 49 inspectors, 127 sub-inspectors, 232 assistant sub-inspectors, 1,608 constables, and 39 women staff.

Six platoons of the Karnataka State Reserve Police, six Quick Response Teams, bomb detection units, and dog squads were stationed across Udupi. Enhanced surveillance covered Adi Udupi, Bannanje bus stand, and the Sri Krishna Math parking zone, with combing operations carried out along the roadshow corridor.

At the 800-year-old Sri Krishna Math, preparations reached a ceremonial peak. Paryaya Puttige Math seer Sugunendra Teertha Swamiji said the Prime Minister would take part in the Laksha Kantha Geetha Parayana, a mass chanting of the Bhagavad Gita by one lakh devotees, and inaugurate the new Suvarna Teertha Mantapa.

“He will first offer floral tributes to saint-poet Kanakadasa and then unveil the golden covering over the Kanakana Kindi,” the seer said.

The Prime Minister will also receive a Poorna Kumbha welcome and have darshan of Lord Sri Krishna, Mukhyaprana Devaru, and the Suvarna Paduke. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister Bairathi Suresh, Dharmadhikari D. Veerendra Heggade, and seers from the Ashta Maths are expected to join the ceremony.

Ahead of his arrival, the Prime Minister posted on X that he felt “honoured” to attend the spiritually significant gathering. “This is a special occasion that brings together people from different sections of society for a recital of the Gita. This Matha has a very special significance in our cultural life,” he wrote, noting the institution’s long-standing legacy rooted in the teachings of Sri Madhvacharya.

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News Network
November 22,2025

Mangaluru: Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy C H has warned of strict action against individuals spreading rumours and attempting to create insecurity within the Muslim community and fuel hatred between Hindus and Muslims through social media.

Referring to a recent social media post alleging that police personnel had entered a masjid premises to check whether beef was being cooked, the commissioner said miscreants were attempting to push their communal agenda. 

“A group of people, both from Mangaluru and abroad, are trying hard to spread rumours. For the past 10 days, they have been attempting to rake up old issues, highlight routine matters as controversies, or fabricate news altogether,” he said.

He reiterated that any such attempts to disturb communal harmony would invite legal action. “Cases will be registered and the accused will be brought to book,” he stated.

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