The home ministry is concerned over hacking of computers of India’s key ministries and departments by groups operating from China and Pakistan. An MHA official noted that everyday an approximate few hundred thousand sites are being hacked by groups based in the neighbouring countries.
The official said that instructions are being issued time to time to government officials not to open unknown sites and fake emails.
He said that despite repeated warnings by the MHA, the officials of many vital wings of the government tend to get careless with their computers resulting in penetration of spyware from foreign hackers. “The advice is repeatedly violated,” the official said.
The MHA has reiterated its instructions and asked the government officials not to keep any file of strategic importance in Internet-connected computers but store them in stand-alone ones. Frequent surfing of pornographic websites, emails containing fake lottery amounts and some spyware are some of the major reasons for the hacking of computers of India’s key ministries and departments by groups operating from China and Pakistan, the official explained. The MHA also recently alerted the ministry of Defence to be on guard. “We have asked the defence ministry to take adequate precautionary measures following sensitive data being hacked from their computers,” a senior home ministry official said on Thursday.
This newspaper had reported on Thursday that the Union home ministry has alerted the ministry of defence following sensitive MoD data having landed into Pakistani hands.