No breach of information from CBI officer's e-mail account

The CBI on Monday refuted reports that probe in any case under its former Joint Director Rajiv Singh was compromised because of suspected hacking or malware, saying the alarm was triggered because of a spam message from his official e-mail ID, which was accessed by his personnel section.

The agency said that on May 17 one of the e-mail accounts of the CBI, allotted to the Joint Director of Banking Security and Fraud Cell, was reported to be "non-functional".

According to agency officials, a spam message was sent to over 30,000 people saying the sender was a Norwegian and it was because of the good fortune of the receiver that this mail landed in his inbox asking the recipient to forward it further.

The "single suspicious activity" in the day from a particular account triggered in-built security system to automatically block the account.

"(The) matter was immediately brought to the notice of systems division of the CBI. The systems division contacted National Informatics Centre which operates the official e-mails of the CBI. NIC informed that in view of a single time suspicious activity on this e-mail on the same day the ID has been immediately and automatically blocked," the agency said in a statement.

The CBI spokesperson said the computers operating the e-mail account were of the personnel section of his office.

"The computers which routinely accessed this e-mail have been sent for examination for possible malware. No breach of information relating to investigation has been found as of now," the spokesperson said.

The case has been initiated in the matter, the spokesperson said.

He also underlined that no personal laptop or computer of the officer has been seized or under probe.

Singh was repatriated to his cadre on the request of the Tripura government which wanted him back from central deputation.

PTI