CoWIN portal

Subject: Science and technology

Section: Awareness of Computers and AI

Concept :

After an alleged data leak of COVID vaccination beneficiaries, the Union Health Ministry said that the CoWIN portal was completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy.
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) set to investigate the issue and submit a report.

About CoWIN

CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) is a web portal for COVID-19 vaccination registration.
It is owned and operated by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
It displays booking slots of COVID-19 vaccine available in the nearby areas and can be booked on the website.
The site also provides vaccination certificates to the beneficiaries.
It is a cloud-based IT solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Covid-19 vaccination in India.

CERT-In

‘Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’ (CERT-In) is the national agency for cyber security incident response and proactive measures for the prevention of cyber incidents in the Country.
CERT-In has been appointed by Central Government in under The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000).

What is Cyber Security Incident?

It means any real or suspected adverse event in relation to cyber security that violates an explicitly or implicitly applicable security policy resulting in unauthorised access, denial of service or disruption, unauthorised use of a computer resource for processing or storage of information or changes in data, information without authorisation.

Functions of CERT-In

Collection, analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents.
Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents.
Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents.
Coordination of cyber incident response activities.
Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents.
Such other functions relating to cyber security as may be prescribed.