GST Officials To Stop Using Public Email IDs For Official Communication
The Directorate General of Systems & Data Management has written to all customs and GST officials, directorates and officers to immediately switch to gov.in/nic.in Email IDs for all official communication rather than using public Email IDs.
The office of the Directorate General of Systems & Data Management of the central government has written to all the customs & GST field formations, directorates, and officers to immediately switch over to gov.in/nic.in Email IDs for all their official communication instead of using public Email IDs like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc, since such emails are susceptible to threats like privacy theft, credential dumping, targeted attacks like phishing, etc.
Central circular to customs & GST officers
According to the circular, a copy of which was accessed by FPJ, "While considering the security of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC)'s digital footprint, one of the vulnerabilities in our security architecture has been identified as the usage of public E-mail IDs like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. On the All-in-Ones (AIOs) provided for official work. At present the security policy of AIOs has been configured to allow accessing any public Email ids on such AIOs."
"An analytical study of such usage of public Email IDs on AIOs has revealed that such Email IDs cannot be tracked, and no mail trail can be established. Furthermore, the malicious links, files, etc., piggybacking these emails cannot be scanned as these emails are directly landing on the network, bypassing our CBIC's mail gateway. For Taxpayers/ Stakeholders, emails originating from such public E-mails have a risk of establishing the authenticity of the user and such stakeholders are hesitant to respond, doubting its authenticity," the circular stated.
