In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

12936 - Easy to recognise 'state-sponsored' malwares: Researchers at Nullcon - Tribune India

Posted at: Mar 3, 2018, 5:49 PM; last updated: Mar 3, 2018, 6:42 PM (IST)


At the 9th annual edition of Nullcon, the international security conference, in Goa. — Tribune photo

Rachna Khaira
Tribune News Service
Goa (Cavelossim), March 3

It is easy to differentiate between an ordinary malware from 'state-sponsored' ones by identifying the patters on the victims, said researchers at the 9th annual edition of the Nullcon, the international security conference, that kicked off in Goa on Friday. 

Leading security researcher Eva Galperin, Director of cyber security, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who has published research on malware in Syria, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, said if a malware is targeting only activist Ahmed Mansoor in UAE, it is not necessarily a state-sponsored malware.

"However, along with Mansoor, if it is also targeting an activist of Human Rights Watch and somebody in the New York Times who cover the Middle east, then we can draw the conclusion that it is probably a nation-sponsored malware," said Eva, adding that if a particular malware is targeting more activists in a particular region, a conclusion can also be drawn as to which state is sponsoring the malware.

She also spoke on her world-acclaimed research to track down Dark Caracal, a leading espionage programme, which was allegedly found to have been routed from a building in Beirut belonging to the Lebanese General Security Directorate.

Analysis made by EFF showed that devices of military personnel, businesses, journalists, lawyers, educators, and medical professionals were compromised.

In yet another exciting hacking workshop, security researcher Adam Laurie, better known by his hacker name 'Major Malfunction' showed how easy it is to hack credit cards, office keys and even the passports having electronic chip fitted inside them.

He even demonstrated the hacking of his son's British passport and how he changed the facial recognition configuration embedded inside the electronic chip to replace his own picture on it. Laurie claimed that he has informed the British authorities about the cracked software around six years ago but they did not paid heed to it and are using the same technology till date.

This was despite the fact that over 3,000 blank passports having an electronic chip embedded inside were stolen from a van few years ago, Laurie said calling it a grave security concern for UK facing terrorist attacks from the last many years.

In another panel discussion moderated by Saikat Datta, an award-winning journalist whose research papers were published by the Centre for Land warfare studies (CLAWS), centre for Airpower studies (CAPS) and the National Security Guards (NSG), the complexity of regulation and cyber security issues were discussed.

Also, technology entrepreneur Abhinav Srivastava, an MSc graduate from IIT Kharagpur, and also the prime accused in the online Aadhaar data theft in 2017 spoke as to how he astonished the investigators by explaining the shortcuts he used to hack the government website to  get Aadhaar data

The Tribunes report 'Rs 500, 10 minutes and you can have access to a billion Aadhaar details' on Aadhaar data breach published on January 4 this year was also discussed in the session.

The researchers also spoke about how they hacked Google and a workshop on bug hunter methodology was also held.

According to Antriksh Shah, co-founder of Nullcon, more than 1,400 people, including security experts and researchers, are participating in the two-day event. 

The idea of Nullcon came from null, an open security community having presence in over 13 national and international chapters. With everyone leading a digital life everyday, cyber research and security has become a global concern nowadays and to address this concern, the conference is being held every year from the last nine years, said Shah.

In addition to speeches, exhibitions, workshops, hacking competitions and job fairs are also being held at the venue