The Indian government is warning its employees to not use services like Google Drive, Dropbox and third-party virtual private networks (VPN) in order to secure the systems from possible cyber threats.
These measures are reportedly part of a 10-page guideline from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) this week. Its 24-pointer measure basically lists down the cyber security do’s and don’ts for the government employees in the country.
Multiple reports have quoted the guideline, suggesting any use of third-party applications should be avoided for the sake of security. We have also independently verified the document, which is available on the Ministry of Highways website, as mentioned by Business Standard in its report.
The government also does not its employees to download confidential data on any non-government cloud service. It also orders that nobody installs third-party toolbars on their web browsers. It seems the Centre wants its employees to follow basic cyber hygiene, which also includes measures like not sharing passwords with an unauthorised person, or using external storage devices (like the USB drive) on government systems.
The increasing adoption and use of ICT has increased the attack surface and threat perception to the government, due to the lack of proper cyber security practices followed on the ground, NIC highlights in its guidelines over here.
All these steps are well-advised but restricting the use of services like Google Drive and VPN apps suggests the government is clearing up the decks for its own authorised services. We still don’t know what those are, and the government has not mentioned what the alternatives for these big tech platforms are available to its employees.
Security analysts have observed a rampant increase in cyber attacks on government entities, and the fresh NIC guidelines ought to be adhered to by government employees, and the measures detailed here are genuine and they may sound simple but are equally effective to thwart possible attacks from third party actors with the intention to steal confidential government data.
Report: The NIC’s 10-page guideline asks employees not to use third party toolbars, like download manager or weather tool bar in internet browsers, or external email services for official communication.
Indian government employees are advised not to use third-party virtual private networks (VPN) and cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox, according to a 24-point "cyber security don’ts" issued by the state’s National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Don’t use any 3rd party anonymization services (ex: Nord VPN, Express VPN, Tor, Proxies, etc.),” says the eighth point of don’ts. That advisory comes weeks after NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and Tor pulled out of India after the country’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In’s) asked all VPN service providers to store user data for five years.
All government employees, including temporary, contractual, and outsourced resources, are required to strictly adhere to the guidelines mentioned in this document. Any non-compliance may be acted upon by the respective CISOs/Department heads, said the NIC document labeled "restricted" and available on the highways ministry’s website.
“The increasing adoption and use of ICT has increased the attack surface and threat perception for the government due to a lack of proper cyber security practices followed on the ground. In order to sensitise the government employees and contracted/outsourced resources and build awareness amongst them on what to do and what not to do from a cyber security perspective, these guidelines have been compiled,” the note added.
BusinessLine website reported that a senior NIC official confirmed the guidelines but declined to give details.
The NIC document has a 25-point list of "security do’s", asking employees to use authorised software and report suspicious mails.
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