NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday claimed a
spam mail was sent to 30,000 people from an official email ID of former joint director of
CBI, Rajiv Singh, who was heading the probe into the
Punjab National Bank scam because of hacking or malware, but there was no foul play involved.
CBI stated there was no probe in the matter as it was a hacking or malware triggered spam, and no information or investigation details were compromised.
A spam message was sent to over 30,000 people saying the sender was Norwegian and it was because of the good fortune of the receiver that this mail landed in his inbox asking the recipient to forward it further. The "single suspicious activity" in the day from an email account triggered in-built security system to automatically block the account. "(The) matter was immediately brought to the notice of systems division of the CBI. The systems division contacted
National Informatics Centre which operates the official e-mails of the CBI. NIC informed that in view of a single time suspicious activity on this e-mail on the same day the ID has been immediately and automatically blocked," the agency said in a statement.
The CBI spokesperson said the computers operating the e-mail account belonged to the personnel section of Singh's office. "The computers which routinely accessed this e-mail have been sent for examination for possible malware," the spokesperson said. He added no personal laptop or computer of the officer has been seized or is under probe.