Voluntary organisation writes to Transport wing over smart chips

The safety of the chip in the smart card is very important. Generally, a majority of such chips are sourced from manufacturers in Germany, USA and Korea.

Hyderabad: Raahat, the Safe Community Foundation, a voluntary organization involved in public safety, has approached the State Transport Department and raised its concerns over potential security risks with the use of Chinese chips in smart cards for DL/RLs that are issued to vehicle owners.

The Foundation Chairman, Dr. Kamal Soi, had also raised the issued with the Transport Minister, highlighting potential risks associated with the use of Chinese chips used in smart cards.

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Telangana State has issued a tender for smart card and assigned it to a company, which allegedly violated guidelines.

The safety of the chip in the smart card is very important. Generally, a majority of such chips are sourced from manufacturers in Germany, USA and Korea.

The chip is an important component with microprocessors, which store data and transmit data and any discrepancy in the chip can lead to data hacking, data breach and data compromise, the voluntary organization said.

Dr Soi, who also met with Transport officials and discussed the discrepancies, further said the department had promised to initiate an enquiry.

“However, though the department took it seriously initially, so far no action has been taken,” he added.