Government asks employees not to send classified information through messaging apps, calls for increased security

Instructions issued over massive violations of the national communication security policy guidelines; move is aimed at controlling leaks

Amid frequent violations of national communication guidelines and government directions to prevent leaks of classified information, the Centre has issued a revised communication advisory formulated by the Intelligence agencies after reviewing the gaps in the present system.

According to the sources, the new communication guidelines have asked all the government officials not to use WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., to share confidential information as the servers of such apps are controlled by the private companies abroad and information can be misused by some anti-India forces. They also said that officials working from home should use only e-office applications for communication.

The revised guidelines also asked the officials to stop sharing secret information or documents via home setup during WFH, and the home systems must be connected with the office network via Virtual Private Network of National Informatics Centre (NIC) only.

All ministries have been asked to take "urgent steps" to prevent such violations and to follow the communication security policies and guidelines strictly while dealing with confidential or restricted communications.

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"Any classified or secret documents should not be stored in officials mobile sets and that should not be shared with any officials by mobile as the new communication apps' servers are owned by the private ownership and can create a big risk for national security and other related issues," a senior official aware of this development said on condition of anonymity.

The new communication norms, circulated to all union ministries, departments and top officials have been asked not to use smartwatches or smartphones during the meetings to discuss classified issues or national security-related issues. They have also been advised not to use various office assistant devices like Amazon's Alexa, Apple HomePod, etc.

The new guidelines have also detailed the norms for virtual meetings, which has become a new norm in the Covid-19 period for the last two years. It also directed officials not to hold virtual meetings on private apps like Google Meet or Zoom application and instead, to use video conference solutions set up by the Department of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), National Informatics Centre (NIC) along with mandatory-use passwords to access the chat room and waiting room facilities.

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