Ministry of Labour and Social Security creates illegal email service.

Baku/17.03.23/Turan: The Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Population has held a procurement tender for the creation of an offline e-mail system, private servers and the purchase of private anti-virus software (anti-malware system).

The Ministry signed a contract with "B2B Group" company worth 1.2m manat ($700,000).

However, "these are the issues that clearly fall within the competence of other government agencies and are also directly related to security", stresses expert Osman Gunduz.

According to him, organization of information security and e-mail services of state institutions in the country is the responsibility of the State Service of Special Communication and Information Security (SSSCI), while maintenance of new state databases is the responsibility of state-run "AzInTelecom" LLC.

 It is to remind that "SSSCI provides security-proven E-mail services to all government agencies. It also provides security-tested antivirus software for government agencies. This institution announced in February this year at the IT summit of state institutions" that since May all state institutions of Azerbaijan will be switched to the new postal system," the expert notes.

The strangest thing is that the licences purchased by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Population through tenders are not part of the SSSCI resource list, i.e. they have not been tested by this institution. "In line with a Presidential decree, a "Government Cloud" has been formed in the country, and instructions given to government agencies not to set up parallel structures. This notwithstanding, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Population is creating a new mail server," Osman Gündüz points out. According to the expert, "all this is happening with the consent of the State Antimonopoly Service.

So far, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Population has not responded to this position. -08C-