Government Email migration goes nasty
July 1, 2014
Two weeks ago, while I was invited to talk on security aspects surrounding www.gov.mu & the MNIS Project, I made a demo showing some embarassing realities on the gov.mu domain name. Things also look nasty for the new “gov” domain, gov-mu.org, which might go fully operational in the coming weeks/months.
Following that whistleblow, it looks like a major migration is happening towards gov-mu.org. Below screenshot went viral on a social network site.
It depicts the temporary address that was given to officials for signing to their official mail address. Unfortunately, the IP-based intranet service is flagged as “nudity” (^^,) … I believe it’s not the case but rather the type of address, the quality of the page etc which triggered the same.
However, if we look closely, we realise the typo, instead of mail.gov-mu.org the new address is written as mail.gov.mu.org which does not exist. This migration is being handled by officials of the Government Online Centre (GOC), which is also responsible for the hosting of the MNIS infrastructure. During a radio debate, I questioned the Project Manager, about the quality of work & malpractices that abound at every level. I wasn’t assured by the answer given. Furthermore, I was told that a Security Audit was carried out by PWC. I’m still waiting for that report to show up, especially to look at the date the audit was carried. I’m going to comment on the security aspects of MNIS only after the report goes public.
As of now, I am only whistleblowing the several malpractices that surround www.gov.mu, we shall debate the MNIS infrastructure once the report is made available for public consultation.
One last thing, while www.gov-mu.org could be “our” new eGov Portal address, the same is currently registered as private.
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whois gov-mu.org
Domain Name:GOV-MU.ORG Domain ID: D169543517-LROR Creation Date: 2013-08-29T10:06:00Z Updated Date: 2013-10-29T03:45:12Z Registry Expiry Date: 2015-08-29T10:06:00Z Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, LLC (R91-LROR) Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146 WHOIS Server: Referral URL: Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited Registrant ID:CR149899300 Registrant Name:Registration Private Registrant Organization:Domains By Proxy, LLC Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com Registrant City:Scottsdale Registrant State/Province:Arizona Registrant Postal Code:85260 Registrant Country:US Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +1.4806242598 Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email:GOV-MU.ORG@domainsbyproxy.com ++++++++++++++++++