JOIN USSources said officials of paramilitary forces, posted at sensitive locations, were found chatting with foreign agents across the border posing as women.
Following a spate of similar incidents, meetings were held to prohibit the use of official computers for social networking on the internet and officials were sensitised on the latest modus operandi of the spies.
Sources in the Telecom Department said an effective mechanism was being put in place to keep a vigil on officials posted in sensitive areas.
In some instances, officials were found indulging in objectionable activities through video chat, recordings of which were later used by the spies to blackmail to extract strategic and commercial information. The errant officials have been removed from their current postings and departmental action has been initiated, sources said.
Some officials were seen posing in their uniforms, armed with AK-47 rifles and service revolvers, which they admittedly did for impressing women, sources said.
While the number of such incidents were more in paramilitary forces, few instances were also reported in the armed forces.
“Reports have been received about recent cyber espionage attack on various installations of the Government of India, including the MHA. This could be the source of malicious code, virus, Trojan or Keyloggers having high security threat not only for that system but the entire MHA network. Social networking sites such as Google+, Facebook and sites of online games shall not be accessed from an official computer,” a circular issued by the Union Home Ministry said.