Indian Army launched SAI: A secure and encrypted messaging app

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign, the Indian Army launched SAI, a secure messaging platform which stands for Secure Application for the Internet. This messaging platform that officially belongs to the Indian government works similarly to the leading messaging applications like Telegram and WhatsApp. The primary aim of introducing this application is to ensure that no classified data is leaked to third parties or intelligence agencies. 

The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD, and GIMS and utilizes end-to-end encryption messaging protocol. SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding, which can be tweaked as per requirements. – said the Defence Ministry 

Last year, the Indian Army asked its personnel to avoid using WhatsApp for official work and asked officers holding sensitive appointments to delete their Facebook accounts. This action was taken when the ministry observed a potential attempt to obtain classified information by Chinese and Pakistani online agents. 

The Indian Army launched SAI, which will be used for internal communication between the officials. The android application has the end-to-end secure voice, texts, and video calling services. According to the Ministry of Defence, the code base of the application is designed in such a way as to support the specific needs of India‘s armed forces and has in-house data servers. 

The app promises proper security for the messages communicated between officials. This is made possible with end-to-end encryption where the conversations are encrypted before being sent from the sender to the receiver. This ensures that the information remains secure, and no third party gets access to it. 

The app is created by Col. Sai Shankar, commanding officer of a signals unit in Rajasthan, and has been tested by the government’s nodal agency CERT and army cyber group. The process of filing applications for Intellectual Property Rights, hosting SAI on NIC, and working on IOS platforms are on a roll. The Defence minister Rajnath Singh also praised Col. Sai Shankar on his skill and ingenuity for developing such an application. 

With cyber theft and hackers trying to trick individuals into downloading malware that reads screen content, the Indian Army launched SAI, an end-to-end encryption app that would be a benchmark in a secure communication environment.