New Delhi, May 6: French security researcher that goes by the name of Elliot Alderson on Wednesday said the Indian government has fixed an issue in Aarogya Setu app. In a tweet, Elliot Alderson said he had highlighted the issue a month ago and it is no more in the updated version of Aarogya Setu app. The Aarogya Setu has neither denied nor confirmed whether the issue highlighted by the French hacker existed.

"The first time I analysed @SetuAarogya it was 1 month ago. With 1 command line it was possible to open any internal file of the app. It's no more possible on the latest version. They fixed this issue silently," Alderson tweeted. His tweet came a day after he claimed to have found a "security issue" in Aarogya Setu app. "A security issue has been found in your app (Aarogya Setu). The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private?" he had tweeted. French Hacker Elliot Alderson Asks Indian Government to Fix Security Issues in Aarogya Setu App, Claims Privacy of 90 Million Indians at Risk.

Aarogya Setu App Issue Has Been Fixed, Admits French Hacker Elliot Alderson

Earlier today, reacting to an ethical hacker's claim, the team at Aarogya Setu app stressed that no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk and no data or security breach has been identified in the COVID-19 contact tracing app. Ravi Shankar Prasad Takes Dig at Rahul Gandhi for Questioning Aarogya Setu App.

French Hacker Elliot Alderson's Claim:

Aarogya Setu's Clarification:

Asserting that Aarogya Setu app is completely safe, the team said the application fetches a user's location by design and store the location data on the server in a secure, encrypted and anonymised manner, "when users submit their contact tracing data voluntary through the app of when we fetch tracing data of a user after they have turned COVID-19 positive."

"The app user can change the latitude/longitude to get the data for multiple locations. Getting data for multiple latitude/longitude this way is no different than asking several people of their location's COVID-19 statistics," the team said in a statement. The app team encouraged users who identify any vulnerability to come forward and inform them. "We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems," it added.

Downloaded by millions in the country, Aarogya Setu is a COVID-19 tracking mobile application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) that comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The app is aimed at augmenting the initiatives of the Central government, particularly the department of health, in proactively reaching out to and informing the users of the app regarding risks, best practices and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of COVID-19. (With IANS inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 06, 2020 03:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).