COVID Vaccine Certificate Should Never Be Shared on Social Media Platforms says Indian Government, Here’s Why

COVID Vaccine Certificate, which seems to have been become a badge of honor of late, should be kept private says the Government of India. COVID vaccine certificate should not be shared publicly on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp, as citizens can fall prey to cyber attackers who can misuse this information for their benefit.

“Beware of sharing vaccination certificate on social media,” says Cyber Dost, cyber-safety and cybersecurity awareness handle maintained by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The handle shares an infographic that goes on to mention that COVID-19 vaccination certificates contain names and other personal details that can be misused by cyber fraudsters to defraud users.

Sensitive Information Shared on COVID Vaccine Certificate

Some of the details that are shared on the COVID vaccine certificate that can be misused by cyber criminals are as follows:

• Beneficiary Name.
• Age, and gender.
• Last four numbers of Aadhaar, which could be used to spread fear about accounts being hacked.
• Unique Health ID (UHID).
• Beneficiary Reference ID.
• Other vaccination details that should be kept private.

Beware of sharing #vaccination certificate on social media: pic.twitter.com/Tt9vJZj2YK

— Cyber Dost (@Cyberdost) May 25, 2021

Why COVID Vaccine Certificate Should Not be Shared Publicly

COVID vaccine certificate is also likely to become important in the future to determine travel within India and abroad. Therefore, the chances of it getting misused is higher since it is an important document. COVID-19 vaccination certificates are also reportedly being sold illegally on the dark web. Recently, Check Point Research highlighted new trends of forged negative COVID-19 test results and fake vaccine certificates being offered on the Darknet and various hacking forums for people seeking to board flights, cross borders, attend events or start new jobs.

The research mentions that according to a post on the market’s forum, published March 25, a hacker figured out a way to create fake orders which he immediately cancelled using their seller account, creating refunded funds out of thin air, which were immediately withdrawn by the hacker. Using this method, they were able to gain 13 Bitcoins (BTC), which is the equivalent of over 752K US. While the marketplace is down completely since, “The hacking and subsequent downtime of the market has not halted sales of COVID-19 “vaccines” and “vaccine certificates”.  Since the marketplace went down, a hacking forum was staged on the same web address offering a variety of advertisements, with COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination documents included, and all at great discounts for promotion purposes,” said the Point Research. Therefore, citizens are advised not to share their COVID vaccine certificate on public platforms.