Govt rules out NIC data breach, says email system 'totally safe & secure'

New Delhi: There has been no data breach into the government's email system maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), according to an official release on Sunday.

The email system is "totally safe and secure", the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT said while dismissing a report claiming that data breaches in organisations such as Air India, BigBasket and Domino's had exposed email accounts and passwords of NIC emails to hackers. "In view of this, it is important to clarify that...there has been no cyber breach into the email system of the Government of India maintained by the NIC. The email system is totally safe and secure," the release stated.

It further noted that cybersecurity breach on external portals may not impact the users of government email service, unless the government users have registered on these portals using their official email address and used the same password as the one used in that email account.


"NIC Email system has put in place several security measures such as two-factor authentication and change of password in 90 days. Further, any change of password in NIC Email requires mobile OTP and if the mobile OTP is incorrect then change of password will not be possible," it said, adding that any attempt of phishing using that particular email can be mitigated by NIC.

NIC also undertakes user awareness drives from time to time and keeps updating the users about potential risks and safety protocols, the release added.