IAF officers to declare personal computers now

Stung by a latest cyber leak that resulted in information regarding various simulated operational scenarios with Pakistan doing war time going into public domain, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has made it necessary for its officials to declare their personal computers. 

Making the rules for computer usage more stringent, the IAF has now asked its personnel to give an undertaking declaring their personal computers and assuring that it will be used as per laid down rules by the armed forces for cyber security.

The latest guideline stems from an incident that happened earlier this month when one of its officers unwittingly connected his personal computer to the internet connection resulting in the Operational Concept Descriptions (OCDs) that involved suggested offensive scenarios and attack plans going public.

Alarmed IAF authorities launched a thorough checking of all the official and personnel computers in the IAF and another strict advisory was issued against storing service information on computers. IAF officials, however, said that no service information was “compromised”. “During a routine check one personal computer was found have a concept paper, which got into public domain,” officials added.

The laid down cyber security procedures stipulates that any service related information shall be stored on stand-alone computer and the computer shall not be linked with any internet connection or pen drives, as it increases the chances of a cyber attack. Following this latest incident, the IAF has again put out an order that “No matter how trivial the information is, it will not be stored on personal computers.”

For the last 2-3 years, the country’s vital and sensitive organizations have been facing constant cyber threats. Waking up to this additional domain of warfare, the Indian armed forces are mulling a joint cyber command that will bulwark the Indian defence establishments against the ‘hacking brigades’ prowling for sensitive and strategic information. The Indian Navy has in fact begun recruitment of its exclusive IT brigade. The trainer cyber experts would be deployed on board warships and various sensitive establishments on shore to manage and secure the network in the organization.

Earlier this year the Indian Navy constituted a Board of Inquiry (BoI) against some of its officers in the Eastern Naval Command whose computers were found to be bugged and official information compromised. Various strategically important projects including the construction indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant is underway at Visakhapatnam and the Russian-build nuclear submarine INS Chakra is also based here. Chinese hackers were suspected behind the attack. 

In another BoI, four senior Indian Navy officials from technical branch were alleged of possessing and leaking classified information through social networking sites.