In light of recent news of US cyber surveillance practices, The Times of India reports the Indian government will soon restrict its employees’ usage of Gmail and other email providers with US-based servers in an effort to increase security.
IT Minister Kapil Sibal commented on the upcoming changes noting that all Indian government officials living abroad would also be required to use National Informatics Centre (NIC) servers when accessing government email as there is no evidence that the US has accessed internet data from within the country. NIC is a science and technology organization that constitutes a part of the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Department of Electronics and Information Technology.
After Snowden’s revelations, we can never be sure to what extent foreign governments are intercepting government emails. . . . Use of official government email would also make it easier to achieve greater transparency and anti-corruption initiatives. Ministers, intelligence and law enforcement officials should not be allowed to use alternate email providers under any circumstance.
–Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society.
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