In its new guidelines on data security, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has prohibited the sharing of secret or top-secret documents by its officials over Internet.

What are the guidelines?

• They have also been asked not to use digital assistant devices like Amazon’s Echo, Google Home in office, Apple’s HomePod and turn off digital assistants, including Siri and Alexa, in their smartphones or watches.
• Officials have also been mandated to deposit their smart phones outside the meeting room during discussions on classified issues.

Why were new guidelines put forward?

Government issued new guidelines after they found that, a large number of government officials use private messaging platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp for communication of classified information. As per ministry, such a practice violated the National Information Security Policy Guidelines as well as Departmental Security instructions.

National Information Security Policy Guidelines (NISPG)

NISPG has been prepared by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on the basis of experience of existing security standards & frameworks as well as global best practices & experience of implementation in the backdrop of expanding information security threat scenario. These guidelines are aimed at improving information security posture of organization owning any information, like classified information. It does not stop organizations from adopting additional stringent practices above these guidelines. It also highlights relevant security & best practices and elaborates baseline information security policy, which government departments, ministries, and organizations are required to implement in order to protect their information.