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| Digital discipline: Pen drives banned, WhatsApp barred for Govt work | | |  Sanjay Pandita
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 25:In a significant move to bolster cybersecurity and safeguard sensitive government data, the Government on Monday banned the use of USB pen drives in all official devices, citing growing threats such as data theft, network intrusions, malware attacks, insider breaches, and unauthorized access.
According to an official order issued by M. Raju, Commissioner Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department, the directive applies across all government departments—with the exception of the Administrative Departments at the Civil Secretariat in Jammu and Srinagar, and Deputy Commissioners’ offices in all 20 districts.
The order further prohibits the use of public messaging platforms like WhatsApp and unsecured online tools such as iLovePDF for storing, processing, or sharing official or confidential material. These measures aim to ensure data sovereignty and prevent potential security breaches.
While enforcing the ban, the government has provided a limited exception for departments that require essential data transfer via pen drives. In such cases, departments may formally request authorization for 2–3 whitelisted USB drives through their respective Administrative Heads, addressed to the State Informatics Officer (SIO), National Informatics Centre (NIC).
“Once approved, the pen drives must be physically submitted to the respective NIC Cell for reconfiguration, authorization, and ownership registration on GOV Drive (https://govdrive.gov.in),” the order states. The order strongly encourages all departments to adopt GOV Drive, a cloud-based, multi-tenant storage platform offering 50 GB of secure space per official with centralized access and governance protocols. It is now the designated platform for safe and official data handling.
“All sensitive technical information—including ICT architecture diagrams, system configurations, server details, database schemas, network topologies, and technology stacks—must be treated as confidential and handled exclusively via approved secure channels.”
These protocols align with information security best practices outlined by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), CERT-In, and departmental data classification policies.
Failure to comply with these directives will invite disciplinary action under the relevant rules governing official conduct, IT policy, and administrative responsibility.
The ban and accompanying guidelines come into immediate effect and have been issued with the approval of the competent authority. All departments have been advised to ensure strict compliance and remain vigilant to uphold the principles of secure and efficient e-Governance. |
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