With highest single-day spike of 24,850 cases, India's COVID-19 count reaches 6,73,165

New Delhi, May 6: The government on Wednesday said no data or security breach has been identified in Aarogya Setu after an ethical hacker raised concerns about a potential security issue in the app.

The app is the government's mobile application for contact tracing and disseminating medical advisories to users in order to contain the spread of coronavirus.

On Tuesday, a French hacker and cyber security expert Elliot Alderson had claimed that "a security issue has been found" in the app and that "privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake".

Dismissing the claims, the government said "no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker".

"We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems. Team Aarogya Setu assures everyone that no data or security breach has been identified," the government said through the app’s Twitter handle.

The tweet gave point-by-point clarification on the red flags raised by the hacker.

"We discussed with the hacker and were made aware of the following... the app fetches user location on a few occasions," it said, but added that this was by design and is clearly detailed in the privacy policy.

The app fetches users’ location and stores on the server in a secure, encrypted, anonymised manner - at the time of registration, at the time of self assessment, when users submit their contact tracing data voluntary through the app or when it fetches the contact tracing data of users after they have turned COVID-19 positive, it said.

On another issue that users can get COVID-19 stats displayed on the home screen by changing the radius and latitude-longitude using a script, Aarogya Setu said that all this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data.

"We thank the ethical hacker on engaging with us. We encourage any users who identify a vulnerability to inform us immediately...," it said.

Responding to Aarogya Setu's clarification, Alderson tweeted, "I will come back to you tomorrow".

Warangal, Jul 22: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an outlet in Telangana's Warangal has started selling 'anti-corona' tea. The tea has become an instant hit with the locals as the beverage is laced with natural immunity-boosting ingredients.

"We sell tea named 'anti-corona'. It has natural immunity-boosting ingredients such as ginger, black pepper, cinnamon powder, among other things. A mixture of these ingredients boosts our immunity," Shiva, the owner of the tea shop said.

"Better immunity is needed to fight the coronavirus infection in the body. So we have started preparing this tea and selling it during the coronavirus pandemic," he added.

Prabhakar, a customer at the tea stall said, the tea was a "corona special tea," and it has Ayurvedic mixtures which help to boost the immunity of the human body.

"The tea is prepared after adding the Ayurveda mixtures to milk. This is good for your health. I, along with my family members and friends, come here every day. We drink this tea thrice a day," Prabhakar added.

According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 46,274 COVID-19 cases in Telangana. Meanwhile, India's coronavirus count stood at 11,92,915 on Wednesday morning.

Kolkata, Jun 19: The nationwide clamour for boycott of Chinese goods is getting louder amid the Ladakh face-off, with traders urging the Centre to direct e-commerce firms to restrict the sale of items from the Dragonland, which imports products worth USD 74 billion to India annually.

Of the total import from China, retail traders sell goods worth around USD 17 billion, mostly comprising toys, household items, mobiles, electric and electronic goods and cosmetics among other things, which could possibly be replaced by Indian products, a national trading body said.

"We, at 'Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal', are advising our members to clear their stocks of Chinese products and refrain from placing fresh orders. We are also requesting the government to restrict e-commerce companies from selling Chinese products," V K Bansal, the association's general secretary, told PTI.

Sushil Poddar, the president of the Confederation of West Bengal Traders Association, said its members have been told to shun trading in Chinese goods as much as possible.

Another national traders' body, The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), has decided to step up its movement against the boycott of Chinese goods, under its campaign 'Bhartiya Samaan-Hamara Abhimaan'.

It released a list of over 450 broad categories of commodities, comprising 3,000 Chinese products.