The Indian Army has developed an in-house WhatsApp-like messaging app called "Secure Application For Internet" (SAI). It will help its personnel prevent “leaking” of any classified information to inimical intelligence agencies.
The ministry on Thursday said in a release, “SAI is a simple and secure messaging application, which supports end-to-end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platforms over the internet. It will be utilised pan-Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service.”
Colonel Sai Shankar, the commanding officer of a signals unit in Rajasthan developed SAI earlier and then upgraded the app to military-grade standards.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh has also complimented Col Shankar for his “skill and ingenuity” in developing the application.
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According to the statement, the application has been vetted by CERT-in empaneled auditor and Army Cyber Group, and 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 pan-Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service. Rajnath Singh after reviewing the functionalities of the app complimented Col Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application,” it added.
Last year, the Indian Army had asked its personnel to avoid using WhatsApp for official work and asked officers holding sensitive appointments to delete their Facebook accounts.
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This decision came after an incident that happened in 2018, where a Group Captain posted at the IAF headquarters in New Delhi had fallen prey to a Pakistani women spy who had virtually "honey-trapped" him.
