Over 12 lakh central government employees switch to Zoho platform

Over the past few weeks, union ministers, as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, have been encouraging citizens to use swadeshi (indigenous) IT products and platforms.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that they have switched to Zoho Mail and Arattai Messenger apps.

Now, it has come to light that several government agencies with over 12 lakh employees have switched to the Zoho platform for internal communication.

Earlier, the National Informatics Centre (NIC), launched in 1976, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has been the sole IT support system for government agencies.

However, due to faster and ever-evolving cyber threats, and a lack of proper digital hygiene among employees, have often caused data breaches not just in government agencies, but also in corporate companies worldwide.

Indian government agencies, too, in the recent past, have suffered ransomware attacks, and employees have fallen prey to honey traps laid by enemy countries.

High-profile case includes the cyber attack on All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 2022. Hackers took control over 1.3TB of data and five servers, causing a huge loss to the government. In the following year in 2023, MeitY called for a tender inviting private firms to offer secured mail services.

And, Zoho Mail won the bid to offer a communication platform for government agencies. With Zoho's Arattai getting traction on social media platforms over the lack of end-to-end encryption, people began raising issues with Zoho Mail. Whether the latter has the same security issues, or has any protection against cyber threats and strong measures in place to prevent data theft.

Taking cognisance of the rumours, Sridhar Vembu, in a statement to Money Control, has said Zoho Mail underwent extensive vetting by NIC involving close to 20 privacy security parameters-based audit on the company's code, data centre, and security practices.

Additionally, other security agencies, such as the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Software Quality Standards (SQS), too, are said to have performed independent security checks on the Zoho platform.

After successfully clearing the screening process, Zoho received the approval. Out of 33 lakhs plus employees across India, 12 lakh have migrated to the Zoho Mail platform.

Though Zoho Mail promises to deliver a secure communication line for employees, the latter has a responsibility to be careful while transferring sensitive data. They should avoid using personal email or messenger apps to perform official work.

Also, system administrators of respective government agencies should perform an audit of employees' computers and smartphones and educate them on the importance of maintaining digital hygiene at all times.

Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech.