In an effort to have secure communication system in the backdrop of Pakistan-based agencies hacking smart phones of the Indian security personnel, the Indian Army has developed its own messaging app. It is named ‘SAI’ (Secure Application for Internet).
It will help the Army officers to talk to each other in a safe system of their own and not be apprehensive of spying by the rival agencies. In fact, the army had to ban more than 90 apps in the last one year to avoid spying. The Navy banned the use of smart phones by its personnel while sailing on warships after some personnel were allegedly trapped by a Pakistani based agency and made to reveal operational information.
Seen as big boost to the ‘Atmanirbhar’ project, the app is similar to other messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD, GIMS & supports an end to end encryption messaging protocol. The SAI app also supports secure voice, text & video calling service for Android users. The SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements.
“The application has been vetted by a CERT-empanelled auditor and Army Cyber Group. The process for filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), hosting the infrastructure on NIC and working on iOS platform is currently in progress. SAI will be utilised by the Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service,†the Army said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the functionalities of the app and complimented Colonel Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity in developing the application, the statement added.
The indigenously designed system comes at a time when there were concerns over the use of commercial mobile applications by the Army officials for communicating with each other thereby compromising security.
The Army had ordered its personnel earlier this year to delete popular apps such as Facebook, Truecaller, Instagram and games like PUBG from their mobile phones.
The order was intended to plug leakage of sensitive national security information from phones of armed forces personnel. The in-house application has been developed by Colonel Sai Shankar .
The army has also developed a software for infrastructure management.
