If there was ever a case of shoot the messenger, it is this. The UIDAI, the body which runs the Aadhaar project in India, has written to the Centre for Internet & Society suggesting that their disclosure of the fact that the data of 130 million Aadhaar users is being publicly disclosed on the Internet is owed to a hack-attack, reports the Times of India. On being contacted by MediaNama, Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director at CIS told MediaNama that "We are waiting for an official copy of the letter, and once we receive it we will decide on our future course of action." The UIDAI told MediaNama that they'll get back to us, and declined to share a copy of the letter with MediaNama. So what we have from the Times of India report is the following: - The UIDAI has argued that the data downloaded from one of the websites - the National Social Assistance Program - could not have been accessed unless a website was hacked. They've alleged data theft, and asked CIS for details of the people involved in this. - They've asked CIS to reply to the notice before May 30th 2017, pointing towards the fact that violations of the IT Act could lead to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. - They've asked for how much of this data - of 130 million - is in their possession. On their part, while CIS has refused to comment, specific responses to these concerns were responded to by…
