Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: After the mAadhaar app, launched in July, 2017 hit one million downloads within just two months, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has introduced a new security feature of Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) to simplify the process of Aadhaar linked verifications via the app.
“In future, all one-time password (OTP) based Aadhaar authentication applications will be migrated to Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) based Aadhaar authentication,” informed CEO of UIDAI Ajay Bhushan Pandey.
Presently, the Aadhaar linked verification service sends an SMS containing an OTP to the registered mobile number. The new security feature will generate an eight-digit long numeric string as TOTP by an algorithm that will be valid only for 30 seconds.
This will be helpful in slow network areas as a dynamic OTP will always be available on mAadhaar app and transactions will not fail due to delay in receiving OTP.
Pandey also informed that TOTP has been configured in the Self Service Update Portal (SSUP) and eAadhaar download to improve both security and convenience.
A user with mAadhaar on his mobile need not carry physical copy of his Aadhaar card as the app stores and displays demographic data that is available on the Aadhaar card, including name, Date of Birth (DOB), gender, address and photograph. It also includes features such as locking biometrics, added Pandey.