MHA comes out with stringent online rules for government employees

New Delhi, July 29: In a bid to enhance security, the Union Home Ministry has restricted employees from accessing online platforms on official devices.

All those working for the government shall not disclose official information on the social media, a note prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs has said.

This order has been made in the wake of several intelligence reports suggesting that there are attempts made everyday by persons abroad to hack or deface government sites. The ministry has advised, that when officials are undertaking official or classified work, they should not work on a system that is connected to the internet.

Further the ministry has also said that no classified information shall be stored on private cloud services and if anyone is found doing so, they are liable for penal action.

The ministry says that no official information shall be disclosed on the social media. Further it also says that all classified data shall be encrypted before copying the same into removable storage.

Employees are also banned from taking out a USB device out of office unless there is authorisation.

The employees cannot store classified information on private cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud etc.