You’ve Got Mail … and It’s from India's PM

After a triple bombing in Mumbai killed 21 people on July 13, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks—from a Hotmail address.

Many federal employees use free e-mail accounts from Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo! instead of official ones to conduct business and even to send out market-moving information. They prefer the private accounts because of the government communications network’s shortcomings. To some cyber-law and cyber-security experts, the reliance on nonofficial services is risky, not to mention embarrassing. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” says Pavan Duggal, a New Delhi lawyer who argues information-technology cases before India’s Supreme Court. “It’s really quite amazing that, as a nation, we haven’t yet woken up to the idea that sensitive government information should be shared through secure channels,” instead of private accounts.