Emails and Passwords of Government Officials Exposed due to Data Breaches

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Hundreds of Union government officials’ emails and passwords have been exposed to hackers as a result of recent data breaches of Air India, Domino’s, and Big Basket, according to the government. The Hindu obtained a copy of an internal document that stated that compromised emails on government domains such as @nic.in and @gov.in are potential cyber threats because they are being exploited by “adversaries” to send malicious emails to all government users. 

A malicious web link provided on WhatsApp and SMS days after the alert was sent on June 10 targeted many government offices, including Defence Ministry officials, requesting them to update their vaccination status. The message directed officials to https://covid19india.in to generate a digital certificate of COVID-19 inoculation, forwarding them to a page called “@gov.in,” which looks similar to the government website mygov.in, and asking for their official e-mail and password. 

According to cyber expert Rajshekhar Rajaharia, the website was hosted in Pakistan in June. “The page mentioned @nic.in email IDs to make the official believe it is a government page. The purpose seemed to be getting the e-mails and passwords of only government officials and get unauthorised access to government systems, the page does not accept any other domain such as gmail.com,” said Mr. Rajaharia.