Maharashtra Government Bans Use of Private Email Accounts for Employees

After the file-encrypting 'Locky' virus infected computers at the Mantralaya (the secretariat) recently, Maharashtra government has banned use of private email accounts by the staff for official work.

The staff should use their official email accounts for work, is the fiat.

The virus affected about 150 computers, mostly in Revenue and Public Works Department, last week. These computers were subsequently sent for forensic tests.

"After the incident, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis held a review meeting with the Information and Technology Department officials on how to make government data more secure," an official from the IT department said.

Principal Secretary, IT, V K Gautam said now it is mandatory for all Mantralaya staff to use their official email ids for official work. Every document or data will be encrypted on the government server.

An official said, over 90 percent staff currently use Gmail and Yahoo accounts for official work.

When asked, Gautam said he is aware of this, adding, "This leads to all our documents reaching the US servers. So we will issue an advisory and give the employees 8-10 days to transfer all important official documents to their official emails."

The IT department is planning to frame a policy on use of emails ids and precautionary measures for government employees across the state, he said.