Govt orders officials to use NIC email amid targeted cyberattacks
Premium- All organizations under the Union ministry of power have been asked to use organization-specific email-ids for official communications.
New Delhi: With Chinese hackers targeting India’s critical infrastructure such as power grids, the Union power ministry has ordered all organizations under it to use “organization-specific email-id for official communications".
According to an office memorandum dated 22 June, the Union power ministry has said, “The undersigned is directed to refer to the prevailing cyber vulnerability due to various cyber threats/malicious attempts made by hackers and to request that all organizations under the ministry of power ensure their officials use NIC email/organization-specific official email-id only for official communications."
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This comes in the backdrop of Red Echo, a hacker group affiliated with the Chinese government, repeatedly targeting the control rooms that manage India’s critical power grids. The massive campaign could have caused widespread blackouts. However, the Chinese hackers failed to break into the systems, and no data breach was detected, according to an earlier statement from the power ministry.
“lt is also to be ensured that classified document is not sent by email. lt has been observed that a large number of officials are still using Gmail and Yahoo accounts for official correspondence," the memorandum said.
India is looking to raise its voice against the threat posed by Chinese hackers targeting its critical infrastructure on the global stage, as reported by Mint earlier.
The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), which oversees India’s cybersecurity operations in critical sectors, sounded an alert on 12 February about Red Echo targeting regional load dispatch centres (RLDCs) and state load dispatch centres (SLDCs).
Although China refutes the allegation as “rumours and slander", India’s power sector reports at least 30 cyberattacks daily, Mint reported on 11 September 2019.
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