Centre dismisses reports of CoWin data breach as ‘fake’, issues clarification

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday (June 10, 2021) said no CoWin data is shared with any entity outside the CoWin environment and refuted the reports of CoWin data breach as fake.

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New Delhi: As soon as the reports of CoWin data breach surfaced, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday (June 10, 2021) issued a statement that said that CoWin stores all the vaccination data in a safe and secure digital environment.

The Union Health Ministry further refuted the reports of CoWin data breach as fake.

As per a report in India Today, the Health Ministry in the statement said that the attention has been drawn towards the news circulating on social media platforms claiming alleged hacking of CoWIN system.

"There have been some unfounded media reports of the CoWIN platform being hacked. Prima facie, these reports appear to be fake. However, the Union Health Ministry and the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration (EGVAC) are getting the matter investigated by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MielY)," the Health Ministry said in an official statement.

All data on #CoWIN is stored in a secure digital environment and is not shared with anyone outside of it.@PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA @PIB_India #Unite2FightCorona #IndiaFightsCorona #IndiaFightsCOVID19

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) June 10, 2021

The ‘fake’ reports started to surface on social media a day after the Centre announced a new feature on the CoWIN portal, which will enable the users to correct any inadvertent errors in name, year of birth and gender printed on their vaccination certificate.

“Now you can make corrections to your name, year of birth and gender on your Cowin vaccination certificates if inadvertent errors have come in,” the official handle of the Aarogya Setu app tweeted on Wednesday.

Additionally, in May, the Union Ministry had also defended CoWin portal, after it faced criticism about the vulnerability of the CoWIN platform, saying that it cannot be hacked.