Foreign Minister Denies Cybersecurity concerns over e-passport

Contact Counsellor

Last Updated05/02/2022

The government is aware of concerns over data theft for existing passports, and the soon-to-be issued e-passports and has taken adequate precautions to ensure privacy and safety, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told Parliament on Friday.
The statement was issued amidst a lively exchange over both electronic chip safety for passports as well as whether their launch would “ignore” certain States or be rolled out uniformly across the country.

An e-Passport is a chip-enabled passport with a biometric identification card strengthening the transparency and security of travel documents.
It is based on the use of contactless smart card technology.
The personal details of the applicants would be digitally signed and stored in the chip, embedded in the passport booklet.
In case of tampering with the chip will result in the failure of the passport authentication.
The e-passports will be produced at India Security Press, Nashik.
Till now, passports are issued in the form of personalised printed booklets.
The first e-passport in India was issued to the then President of India Pratibha Patil on 25 June 2008 by the Indian Passport Authority.
The software for the ePassport has been developed by IIT Kanpur and the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
NIC under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is the technology partner of the Government of India.

ePassport is an upgrade to the traditional passport and is aimed at making it more secure and ensuring smooth passage through immigration posts globally.
The e-passport will be secured with biometric data.
The e-passport will enable smooth passage through immigration posts across the world.
The e-passport will be in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
The chip on the e-passport will restrict the unauthorised transfer of data through radio-frequency identification (RFID).
The e-passport will also deter identity theft and forgery.

The issue of security and a citizen’s right to privacy (under Article 21 of the Constitution) has been much a regular topic of debate nationally and internationally.
Introduction of e-passports may hamper this right as it puts all of the personal data of the citizens on a domain of privacy.
Similarly security issues raised when the citizens were expected to link their mobile and other personal details with their Aadhaar.

Skimming is a procedure in which criminals clone digital cards and documents with stolen data.
The skimmers which cannot be usually spotted by an untrained eye have circuitry that reads and stores the data on the chip.
The issue was also raised in the Parliament to which the Government has responded that it has been taken care of.

It is one of the several Mission Mode Projects (an individual project within the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) that focuses on one aspect of electronic governance, such as banking, land records or commercial taxes etc.) of India.

This is an expansion and improvement of the PSP-V1.0, an e-government tool that brought new changes to the delivery of passport-related services to individuals.
It is aimed at creating a digital platform that would be “transparent, more accessible and reliable” and that it would be backed by a trained workforce.
This will create a state-of-the-art digital ecosystem, overhaul existing processes and integrate various wings of Government that are involved in issuance of passports.
It is expected to have technology upgrades including the use of the latest biometrics technology, Artificial Intelligence, Advance Data Analytics, Chat-Bot, Auto-response, Natural Language Processing, Cloud Enablement.