The Centre has told its staff they cannot use third-party virtual private networks (VPNs). This means that government employees, India cannot use VPNs, proxies, or anonymization services. Additionally, they cannot use remote administration programs like AnyDesk, TeamViewer, or Ammyy Admin.
Moreover, NordVPN, Tor, ExpressVPN, and NordVPN, as well as third-party anonymization services, are no longer allowed.
Google drive VPN has security risks. Government employees have been asked not to use Google Drive and Dropbox to store sensitive information.
The VPN ban in India is a warning to VPN service providers who have announced they will stop providing their services nationwide. The warning came after the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) issued a directive on how VPN providers were to do business in India.
Why does India orders a VPN ban?
Cyberattacks in the nation have tripled in only two years. Still, the funds designated for cybersecurity have yet to be utilized, with just Rs 98.31 crore of the total Rs 213 crore sanctioned being used.
In 2019, there were 3,94,499 cybersecurity incidents in India. In 2020, there were 11,58,208 incidents, and in 2021, there were 14,02,809 incidents. This year, 6,74,021 incidents have been recorded up to June.
The cyberattack that knocked the servers out of commission at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, on November 23 is still not fully fixed.
In India, the rise in such cases has been exponential.
In India, there have been many cases of cyber-attacks. The most recent one was on the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Twitter handle. The attackers were quickly stopped, but this shows how important it is to be careful online.
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Is VPN banned in India by the Parliament?
The Indian government’s VPN services ban is a significant setback for internet freedom. VPNs allow users to bypass government censorship and access blocked websites. Without VPNs, Indian internet users cannot access many important websites essential for work, school, and personal use.
A Parliamentary standing committee is a group of people elected to represent a larger group. In its report this year, the Parliamentary standing committee observed a significant surge in cyber incidents and security breaches. This means that more and more people are trying to break into computer systems and that these systems should be more secure. The Parliamentary standing committee said that the capabilities and resilience of the country to deal with these dangers in cyberspace must be enhanced proportionately.
Consequences of VPN ban India
Cyber security is essential because it helps protect the internet from bad people who want to harm. This ban will significantly impact the lives of millions of people in India.
The Ministry of India is responsible for keeping the internet safe, and it should ensure that they have enough money to do so. The committee believes that the government may increase the budget for cyber security on a year-on-year basis to forestall any failures in this domain for sheer lack of funds,” it said. The government has an automated cyber threat exchange platform that helps organizations across sectors stay proactive against potential cyber threats. So far this year, the government has allocated Rs 216 crore for the platform but has only spent Rs 98.31 crore.
The government has issued guidelines for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications/infrastructure and compliance. Government websites and applications are audited concerning cyber security before their hosting and regularly after hosting as well. Ninety-seven security auditing organizations have been empanelled to support and audit the implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
VPN Ban India set new rules to follow by Government Employees
Cyberattacks are attacks that happen when someone tries to get information from a computer without permission. The recent attack on the country’s most important facility is being investigated by many people. The government has released rules to help protect against future attacks. The rules were released, according to the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is part of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. This document is a set of guidelines for government employees to help them stay safe from cyber security threats. Some of the things the document recommends are being careful about what information you share online, not opening attachments from unknown people, and creating strong passwords.
Ban on scanning documents
The agency is asking staff not to use mobile apps to scan internal documents.
CamScanner is an app used to scan and save documents, and it is one of the most popular apps in China. The ban was met with criticism from Chinese app developers and users.
The government of India banned several Chinese apps in July 2020 because they were worried about national security. CamScanner was one of the banned apps. CamScanner is an app that people use to scan and save documents. It is one of the most popular apps in China. Some people in China were not happy when the app got banned.
Where are these VPN services ban in India applicable?
The government’s security posture may be strengthened by having all government departments adhere to the same cyber security standards. This means that the government is trying to ensure that everyone who works for the government follows the same rules for cyber security. This is so that the government’s overall security posture is more assertive.
In India, the government has an organization called Cert-In that deals with cyber security. Part of their job is to ensure VPN providers keep a log of their customers’ information. This includes names, addresses, and why the person is using the VPN service.
Conclusion
The Indian government will not allow people to do bad things online by using a fake name. At a recent news conference about the Cert-In guidelines, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar mentioned.
The government has forbidden employees from storing sensitive data on any cloud service that the government does not run, and this is to help keep the data safe. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has given its approval to the directive issued by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to enhance the “security posture” of the federal government.
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