Securing database is key: Nilekani

He was speaking at the ‘Vision-2020 Leadership Series’ organised as part of the ‘Bangalore IT.Biz’ 2009.

“The database can be a potential target of hackers and issue of UID will be a massive logistical challenge ever taken up anywhere in the world,” he said.

“We would have a lot of challenges from security, technology, implementation side. Everybody would like to hack into our system. So we need to have a fool proof system,” he added.

Asked about fancy number, he replied firm no. “Take the number you get, Number will be numeric; it will be a 16-digit number.”

No ID card

The authority will issue a ID number not a card, and ID is not a mandatory but will be a demand-driven where the benefits and services that are linked to the UID will ensure its adoption.

He also said that the authority would soon appoint a consultant to help identify a company which would manage the proposed Unique Identification data centre. There would be diverse sets of enrolling point, but uniform process for the systems.

He said the biometrics and data standards and verification committees appointed by UIDAI will submit its reports in a couple of months.