According to DNA Money, the financial data of Indian customers were routinely shared with the U.S intelligence agency by Microsoft
According to DNA Money, the financial data of Indian customers were routinely shared with the US intelligence agency by Microsoft. In an exclusive report, DNA Money revealed that they found a document related Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s risk observation revealing that the data of customers having an account with banks which have migrated to Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based email service has been discovered to have been shared with the US agencies. Customers were not aware of the issue where their financial data being shared but the banks were aware. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked an explanation from the banks and has also flagged the data sharing by the service provider in its Risk Assessment Report (RAR). According to the document the banks were aware of the issue because they had purchased and migrated to Microsoft’s cloud-based email service - Office 365. “All the mailboxes had been migrated to office 365 Microsoft cloud environment. It was gathered from the Microsoft transparency hub that Microsoft is bound to share customers’ data under US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and US national security letters as and when required by the US authorities.” said RBI in the report. Microsoft has disclosed information at least on 3,036 occasions and received more than 4,000 government requests or legal demand requests for Indian customers in the US. After the RBI report banks said, they have made a deal with Microsoft where the data will be shared only if the order was issued by the Indian Government or court. DNA Money said they tried to reach RBI and bank through email and other ways and only SBI and Bank of Baroda responded. State bank of India has responded to the issue saying in 2016 and 2017 they have received no request from U.S intelligence agencies regarding the customer data. Bank of Baroda responded by saying that “Protecting the interests of our esteemed customers is of paramount importance to us. The bank’s ‘systems and operations’ are robust – we stand committed to protecting our customers’ interests, and we have all the necessary systems in place to ensure the same.” Office 365 commercial has more than 100 million users according to Microsoft. For the latest cyber threats and the latest hacking news please follow us on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
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