WikiLeaks on Friday published documents that claims the United State’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is using specific tools to secretly collect Aadhaar data. These claims have been dismissed by the government.
Wikileaks documents say CIA used ExpressLane – a tool devised by Cross Match Technologies – to cyber spy. “ExpressLane is a covert information collection tool that is used by the CIA to secretly exfiltrate data collections from such systems provided to liaison services,” says the published document.
Cross Match Technologies, a US company specialising in biometric software, was one of the first suppliers of biometric devices certified by UIDAI for Aadhaar program.
Another article, Wikileaks states, “UIDAI, as far as is known, did not do a background check on these companies or their business, professional and personal associations.”
It further claims “CIA agents can access Aadhaar database in real-time.”
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Have CIA spies already stolen <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash”>#India</a>'s national ID card database? <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/aadhaar?src=hash”>#aadhaar</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/biometric?src=hash”>#biometric</a> <a href=”https://t.co/zqJmkaoiw8″>https://t.co/zqJmkaoiw8</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/modi?src=hash”>#modi</a></p>— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) <a href=”https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/900990454434598912″>August 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
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A few minutes later, another tweet read:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>See also "<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Aadhaar?src=hash”>#Aadhaar</a> in the hand of spies" <a href=”https://t.co/J0sBghQ6EJ”>https://t.co/J0sBghQ6EJ</a></p>— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) <a href=”https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/901148660163117060″>August 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
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In 2011, Cross Match Technologies hit the headlines “when it was reported that the US military used a Cross Match product to identify Osama bin Laden during the assassination operation in Pakistan.”
