Avoid Yahoo/Gmail – Central Govt. to Officials

The Central govt. has advised govt. officials to avoid using Yahoo or Gmail for exchanging emails, citing lack of control over these email servers as the reason.

Even though the govt. officials have nic id, they prefer to use web based emails (better speed, performance)

“There are apprehensions that since their servers are not hosted from India, use of such email service to transfer official data or information exposed it to unnecessary risks as the data first go to a server in another geographic location, before reaching the intended recipient. Use of these email services on official computers could also expose them” – source

Well, our govt. fails to keep pace with technology (remember Blackberry blackout?) and instead of upgrading it’s infra, they want to stay happy with mediocre decisions like these.

What’s your opinion?

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  • comment(s) on Avoid Yahoo/Gmail – Central Govt. to Officials

    10 Responses to Avoid Yahoo/Gmail – Central Govt. to Officials

    1. Vivek Puri says:

      I am with the Indian Government on this. I think it is a too much to data security risk if Google and Yahoo store and index content uploaded by Government employees. Of couse at the same time, Indian companies/startups should also step forward and provide reliable alternatives.

      • arjun says:

        “I am with Indian Govt. on this”…lol. Are you above mediocrity yourself? Simply a dumb under-evaluated statement wouldn’t do. Ask your Indian govt. to get up and think technology instead of behaving like a zombie.

    2. raju says:

      wonderful opportunity for rediiff mail :O

    3. Kiran says:

      If security is an issue, this is a bad decision as if the server is hosted in India or outside India, one who wishes to jack into the system does not physically arrive at the server location. He would be doing that by IP or so.
      Also, how can you assure that the .nic server has a better security than a Yahoo / Gmail server?

    4. Kiran says:

      i mean “hack into the system” :)

    5. Vivek Puri says:

      It’s not about hacking. It’s about who is indexing your content.

    6. RYK says:

      I agree ALL OF THE ABOVE

      - Wonderful opportunity for Rediff and other Indian email providers to take over email management of nic and migrate over to their own systems with their own servers
      - It is not necessarily true that NIC had better security than Yahoo & Google
      - NIC should definitely upgrade it’s standards. Outsourcing to Rediff may be the way to go
      - Govt employees should stop using free email services and become security conscious

    7. Pingback: Weekly Recap of Interesting Articles |Technology and Business Startups in India

    8. brijkishor katesaia says:

      yes i agree , as far as security is concerned it is important to do .

      • mathews says:

        Let them provide the government officials the alternative technology.

        Why should they ask them? Most of the companies have websites and

        they provide the email service to their officials. Why can’t the

        Indian government do the same for its employees? Are they using the

        “Ostrich technology” Shame on the government in their attitude to

        ban the internet giant following the path of China.