RTA Cards Under BRS Gave Backdoor Access to China, Allege Whistleblower

Hyderabad: Most driving licence cards and vehicle registration cards issued by the road transport department in the last four years pose a serious security risk, as the company, which was contracted by the previous BRS government in 2023, has been supplying smart cards having unsafe Chinese chips, which are easy to hack, alleged a whistleblower.

According to Dr Kamal Soi, an international expert on transport and road safety, Colorplast India was awarded a tender by the transport department in February 2023 to supply pre-printed PVC 64K Scosta smart cards on a rate contract basis for one year.

Scosta is an acronym for the Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application, an operating system standard for contact smart cards developed on the request of the Union Road Transport Ministry in 2002.

Dr Soi said that Colorplast India had been winning the contract to supply smart cards for the four successive years. It stopped the supply of smart cards in July 2024.

He alleged that Colorplast India had violated contract conditions by supplying non-compliant Scosta smart cards having substandard Chinese chips. “The supply of smart cards with Chinese chips pose a serious threat to India’s cybersecurity and national security interests as it could give a potential backdoor access to China for espionage. It is a serious criminal act committed by the company,” Dr Soi explained.

He said the Scosta chips were essential to ensure the integrity and security of the transport data and, therefore, are mandated under the tender as well.

Dr Soi, a member of safe community foundation Raahat, called for an investigation into the chips supplied and strict action against Colorplast and all delinquent officials, who allowed such a scam to perpetuate.”

“On June 10, 2024, NIC, MIETY, smart card technology division confirmed that they had received 20 cards with two different ATRs. They also confirmed that on testing with the OEM tool to identify the chip maker and model they found that 12 cards were found to be non-compliant for the chip,” he revealed.

Road transport officials were preoccupied with Tuesday’s immersion ceremony and could not be contacted.

Details of compromised cards

Series RC0380000/24 onwards series

Series RC0460000/24 onwards series

Series DL0358000/24 onwards series

Series DL0284000/24 onwards series

Series DL0362000/24 onwards series