NOTE: This is a rough translation of the what is believed to be the Hindi Press Release (source: 1, 2)
Special Task Force, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow
Press Note No.- 203 Date- 10.09.2017
A gang of Hackers, trying to forge Aadhar Cards through Bypass and Finger Print Cloning of biometric standards as laid down by UIDAI, exposed.
A gang of Hackers, trying to forge Aadhar Cards through Bypass and Finger Print Cloning of biometric standards as laid down by UIDAI, has been exposed by a Special Task Force, Uttar Pradesh on 09.09.2017. A rare distinction was achieved when head of the gang Saurabh Singh, along with 10 other accused were arrested from Kanpur-Urban district.
Details of arrested accused people-
1) Saurabh Singh S/o Bhupendra Singh, R/o H.No. K-22, Bank Colony P.S., Barra, Kanpur-Urban.
2) Shubham Singh S/o Bhupendra Singh, R/o H.No. K-22, Bank Colony P.S., Barra, Kanpur-Urban.
3) Shobhit Sachan S/o Gyanendra Singh, R/o H.No. K-219, Bank Colony P.S., Barra, Kanpur-Urban.
4) Shiv Kumar S/o Dinesh Kumar, R/o Sagra P.S., Zafarganj, Fatehpur.
5) Manoj Kumar S/o Malkhan, R/o Village Dheera, P.S. Bindki, Fatehpur.
6) Tulsiram S/o Ram Prakash Shakay, R/o Village Chaoudhary Bhogav, P.S. Bhogav, Mainpuri.
7) Kuldeep Singh S/o Lt. Shiv Kumar Singh, R/o Village Sarsideeh, P.S. Kandhai, Pratapgarh.
8) Chaman Gupta S/o Ashvani Gupta, R/o Pihani Chungi P.S., Hardoi Rural.
9) Guddu Gond S/o Kalpnath Gond, R/o Village Visunpura, P.S. Ahiraoula, Ajamgarh.
10) Satendra Kumar S/o Chandrapaal, R/o H.No. 119 K.R. Puram, Sangwa Road, P.S. Chakeri, Kanpur-Urban.
Details of seizure:-
S.No. / Item / Quantity1 / Laptop / 12 only
2 / Artificial finger prints on paper / 38 only
3 / Chemically made artificial finger prints / 46 only
4 / Mobile phones with SIM card / 12 only
5 / Aadhar finger scanner / 02 only
6 / Finger scanner device / 02 only
7 / Iris-Ratina Scanner / 02 only
8 / Rubber Stamp / 08 only
9 / Aadhar Card / 18 only
10 / Web Cam / 01 only
11 / GPS Equipment / 01 only
12 / Polymer Curing Instrument (UV Rays) / 01 only
13 / Photo Polymer Rayses (Pink Chemical) / 01 only
14 / Printo Print Enhancer / 01 only
15 / Transparent Glass Plate with artificial finger print stuck in middle with tape. / 02 only
In last few days, STF, Uttar Pradesh was getting information/clues about a gang active in misusing Operator Mandatory certified logic ID and Bypass for making forged Aadhar Cards through Tampered Client Application involving unauthorised persons from Operators and Enrolment Agencies. After UIDAI got cues regarding above information, Deputy Director of UIDAI registered complaint with Cyber Crime Police Station with reference no. 02/2017 IPC Sections 416/419/467/471 and Sections 66 / 66C / 66D I.T. Act. Before this, complaints related to Aadhar Card were also registered at Lucknow, Deoria and Kushinagar. As an inter-state gang was active in the case UIDAI requested STF, Uttar Pradesh for help to expose the gang activities. In this connection, Additional SP Shri Triveni Singh, and his team, were directed by Shri Amitabh Yash, IG, STF, UP and Shri Manoj Tiwari, DGP, Senior SP, STF, UP, to notify collected information and take necessary action accordingly. Accordingly, actions were taken in the case and police mechanism was set on alert.
During investigation it was found that the above module is active in different districts of UP and Saurabh Singh of Kanpur is mastermind of the above gang. All details were detailed and attested to trace the locations and movement of the mastermind, Saurabh Singh, by Cyber team of the STF Headquarters. After exact information were extracted, Saurabh Singh and other 10 mentioned above were arrested, along with above seizures, by ASP Triveni Singh, from H.No. K-219, Bank Colony P.S., Barra, Kanpur-Urban on 09.09.2017.
The arrested accused told that to make forge Aadhar Cards they were bypassing the set legal standards and they took finger prints of authorised operators through Biometric device. Thereafter they took print on butter paper from lazer printer. Thereafter, it was treated with photo polymer regin chemical in polymer curing instrument (UV-Rays), heated at 10 degree and then at 40 degrees to produce artificial finger prints similar to original finger print. The artificial finger print is used to log in Aadhar Card website. This artificial finger print of the operator is used by other people at different places to complete the enrolment of aadhar. The artificial finger print works like the original one only. It is important to mention that earlier Aadhar Client Application was accessed through finger print of the operator, but when it was found that hackers are using clone finger prints to access the system, UIDAI added IRIS authentication along with the finger print to access the application and therefore, access by fraud operators was restricted. But, while investigating the case, it was found that hackers have developed the technology to bypass the IRIS authentication requirement. These application hackers started sending unauthorised operators, taking 5 thousand from each. This way a number of machines could work on single ID of an operator.
During investigation, another fact came to light that the standard Information Security Policy was not enacted by UIDAI with Registrars, Enrolment Agencies, Supervisors, Verifiers and Operators. Using this loophole hackers were able to create forged Aadhar cards. Security Audit for whole Aadhar Enrolment Process would be done.
The above persons are booked by the Cyber Crime Police, Lucknow, under IPC sections 419, 420, 467 468, 471, 473, 474, 34, Sections 66, 66C and 66D of IT Act and Section 7/34 of Aadhar Act and further necessary investigations and actions are carried forward.
Modus Operandi:
Bypassing of set biometric standards of UIDAI through Clone Finger Print and tampering of Source Code of Application Client of UIDAI, establishing Fake Tampered Client Application, bypassing set Operator Authentication Process to make forged Aadhar Cards.