The Government on Sunday clarified that its email system, which is maintained by its information technology arm National Informatics Centre (NIC), is totally safe and secure and there has been no cyber breach into the system.
The clarification, issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, came amid reports in a section of media that data breaches in organisations like Air India and Big Basket, have exposed email accounts and passwords of NIC email to the hackers.
"In view of this it is important to clarify that firstly, there has been no cyber breach into the email system of the Government of India maintained by the NIC. The email system is totally safe and secure," the ministry's statement said.
It further added that cyber security breach on external portals may not impact the users of government email service, unless the Government users have registered on these portals using their government email address and have used the same password as the one used in the government email account.
NIC email system has put in place several security measures such as two factor authentication and change of password in 90 days, the statement added.
Further, any change of password in NIC email requires mobile one time password (OTP) and if the mobile OTP is incorrect then change of password will not be possible. Any attempt of phishing using NIC email can be mitigated by NIC. NIC also undertakes user awareness drives from time to time and keeps updating the users about potential risks and safety protocols, the ministry clarified.
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