EPFO temporarily shuts Aadhaar seeding portal after reports of data theft

The EPFO has shut down the website, urging the CSC to secure the confidential data of employees

Confidential data from one of the Aadhaar-seeding portals of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been stolen by hackers, leading to a shutdown of the facility over a month ago.

The incident came to light after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) informed the Labour and Employment Ministry in March about the data theft from the EPFO’s web portal, which helps subscribers link their provident fund accounts with their Aadhaar numbers.

“It has been intimated that the data has been stolen by hackers by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the website (aadhaar.epfoservices.com) of EPFO,” Central Provident Fund Commissioner V P Joy wrote