Central Government employees cannot use G-Drive, Dropbox And VPN

In a latest directive issued by the Government of India, it has been stated that Central Government employees will be forbidden from using virtual private networks (VPN) and other cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox. The directive has been issued by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) and National Informatics Centre (NIC), and talks about how VPN service providers could operate in India.

As per the directive, the concerned employees shall no longer be given permission to save any sort of confidential government files on cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox.

Cloud services are known to allow their users to store their data on the net, and not on the internal memory of their personal devices.

As per the report, the rules set by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), aim at improving the security position of the Government. The Indian Government has been on a of a point of view that VPN services serve as a threat to the security of the country as VPNs and Cloud services serve as a potential method used by terrorist organizations.

NIC Directive says:

• The directive mentions that the employees should not use cloud services to store confidential government data.
• The use of VPN services has also been prohibited.
• The employees are instructed not to use any third-party applications to scan government documents, such as CamScanner.
• Employees should not ‘root’ or ‘jailbreak’ devices.
• Uniform cyber security guidelines should be followed at all government offices across the country.
• Cert-In had earlier directed VPN companies to maintain a record of the customers who are using their services.
• Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar had stated that the companies who do not wish to follow the guidelines are free to move away from India.