Email forms the backbone for all e-Governance initiatives and is the primary mode of communication in the Government both at the Centre and States. The Email policy of the Government was released in February 2015 and in accordance with its mandate, an Email ID will be given to all Government officials which is provided by NIC along with 24x7x365 support. The primary objective of the policy was to ensure that Government data resides on Indian servers and within the control of Government of India. The Government Email Service is enhanced through an open-source solution in accordance with the “Policy on adoption of Open-source software for Government of India” by MeitY. This provides strategic control to GoI over the Email Service.
The importance of Email Service was evident during the ongoing pandemic as it ensured that communication within the Government is not impacted by COVID-19 and continues to operate seamlessly. The service is the largest service of its kind offered by any Government globally.
Features of Government Email Service The Email Service provided by NIC is as per the global standards ensuring security, performance, availability, redundancy, and service continuity in addition to a rich feature set. The prominent features of the current service are Internationalized Domain Name, Support in Multiple Languages, User Persona, Standardized Office Templates etc. The Government Email infrastructure is under constant attack by hackers. Some of the figures relating to threats addressed by the GoI Email Service are shown in Figure 1. The security layers offered in Government Email Service are illustrated in Figure 2.
It is great to see that NIC’s email system has near universal coverage. When NIC decided to migrate from proprietary email to open source based inhouse developed system in 2015 there were several who doubted its ability to scale to needs of lakhs of Government users or provide user friendly access as compared to other commercially available email suites. It is heartening to see how the email system has been providing flawless service without interruption. Apart from its availability, I wish to mention unique security features and functionalities which has kept email data secure despite continuous attempts to breach the system. My compliments to those who are working behind the scene to provide an email system which can be rated among the best. Dr. Ajay Kumar, IAS Secretary Ministry of Defense, GoI
Security Technology Used The incoming Email traffic passes through Firewalls, IPS & WAF for filtering of malicious contents and then passes on to the authentication layer for 2-Factor authentication using NIC Kavach application. Web Application Firewall (WAF) acts as a filter which protects against the application attacks. Firewalls protect against network attacks by blocking unsolicited and unwanted incoming network traffic. Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) detects and prevents identified threats. IPS continuously monitors the network for possible malicious incidents and captures information about the same. 2-Factor Authentication (2FA), named Kavach with a second level verification in addition to the login-password combination allows only authorized users to access the Email service (Refer Figure 3). Kavach as a framework also includes Geo-fencing that allows access to an ID from the place of physical presence of the user thereby reducing the attack canvas.
NIC Email Service has been exceptional in ensuring ease of communication in Government. The platform is easy to use and has features as per global standards. To ensure data security of the Government, I recommend that all officials only use the Government Email Service. Abhishek Singh, IAS CEO MyGov, President & CEO NeGD MD & CEO Digital India Corporation
Summary Email continues to be one of the most prolific medium used by hackers to compromise the Government service framework. Hence, it is essential that users adhere and follow strict service security practices and ensure that devices from which they access Emails are patched with latest updates for the Operating System, Anti-Virus and other software stack on the system. Users must also proactively report any suspicious / malicious Emails to incident@nic-cert.nic.in.
eMail Services Core Team R.S. Mani, DDG & HoG (rsm@gov.in) Dr Seema Khanna, DDG & HoD (seema@gov.in) K.N. Tiwary, Scientist-D (tiwary@nic.in) Rajesh Singh, Scientist-C (rajesh.singh@gov.in) Ashwini Kumar Tiwari, Scientist-C (tiwari.ashwini@nic.in) Amit Kumar, Scientist-C (amit.kr@nic.in) Kundan Kumar, Scientist-C (kundan.kumar@nic.in)
Contact for more details Government eMail PIU National Informatics Centre, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110 003 Email: email-piu@nic.in, Phone: 011-24305668