Monday, September 02, 2013: After the cyberspying by the US, the Government of India is making an effort to improve the security of confidential government information. For this purpose, it is soon going to ask its employees to put an end to the use of Google’s Gmail for official communication. According to a senior official in the ministry of communications and information technology, the government is contemplating to send a formal notification to around five lakh employees to stop using email service of providers such as Gmail, since their servers are in the US. The Times of India reported. It demands its employees to make use of official email service offered by India’s National Informatics Centre.
India became cautious after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said that the US government can access huge amount of personal data through the internet like emails and chat messages from firms such as Google, Facebook and Apple using a programme known as PRISM.
The senior official also stated that employees made use of service providers such as Gmail for ease of use in comparison to official email services along with bureaucratic processes that oversee development of new accounts.
As per documents leaked by Snowden, it is likely that NSA could have tried to access network infrastructure in most countries. Though, the formulation of the new policy is taking place, it is not clear on its compliance part.
Moreover, even senior government officials in India comprising ministers of state for communications & IT Milind Deora and Kruparani Killi do have Gmail IDs listed in government portals that too as their official email.
