On Sunday, the IT ministry clarified that no cyber breach in Government NIC email system has taken place and the ministry dismissed the report claiming that the recent data breach in Air India, Big Basket, and Domino’s exposed the personal details of government officials to the hackers.
What the ministry had to say about the breach claim?
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology informed that there has been no cyber breach into the email system of the Government of India maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). They added in the statement that, “The email system is totally safe and secure.”
The ministry also clarified that, Cybersecurity breaches on external portals may not affect the users of Government email service, unless the users have registered on such portals using their government email address and have used the same password as the one which is used in the government email account.
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How the system works?
The union IT ministry revealed the working of the NIC system to set off the on-going argument. The ministry also stated that-
“NIC also undertakes user awareness drives from time to time and keeps updating the users about potential risks and safety protocols.”
Dismissing and cancelling the report, the government said NIC email system has various security measures like two-factor authentication and change of password in 90 days. Any change of password in NIC email requires mobile OTP and if the OTP entered is incorrect, the password could not be changed. The ministry also said NIC email is capable of mitigating any attempt of hacking or misusing using NIC email.
Few of the recent data breaches
According to some recent reports stated that emails and passwords of several central government officials have been exposed to hackers due to the recent data breaches of Air India, Domino’s, and Big Basket.
For instance, national carrier Air India had reported a massive data breach in its passenger service system in May. As per Air India’s statement, the data breach affected the personal data of around 45 lakh subjects over the last 10 years. The breach involved personal data registered between August 26, 2011, and February 3, 2021, with details that included name, date of birth, contact information, passport.
Also read: Dominos information reportedly leaked on the dark web
Pizza delivery service Dominos India also became the alleged victim of a data breach in May, this year. The data breach exposed order details of 18 crore Pizza orders made and delivered via the service.
Also read: Air India Data Breach: Credit card, passport and personal details of 45 lakh passengers compromised
Except these the grocery e-commerce platform, Big basket also filed a data breach that leaked details of around two crore users last year. The data was reportedly put up for sale for around ₹30 Lakh in April this year.
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