Google Drive, DropBox and other third-party cloud storage services are banned from use by the Government of India for its employees. Here are all the details.
As part of the new Government order, government employees are currently restricted from using third-party non-governmental cloud services. This includes hosting services that may be as popular as Google Drive and DropBox. Along with these cloud services, government employees are also prohibited from using VPN services such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and others. The order has been approved by the National Informatics Center (NIC) and sent to all ministries and departments. All government employees are required to comply with the new regulations.
The move comes just weeks after the Indian government directed VPN service providers and data center companies to store user data for five years, and even share it with others. government when required. First reported by Gadgets360, it is said that the government cited an increasing number of cyberattacks and threats. Employees are asked “not to upload or save any internal, restricted, confidential government files or data on any non-governmental cloud services (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox) , etc).”
Google Drive, DropBox services are prohibited for Govt. workers
As part of the directive, government employees are required not to use any of these third-party cloud services. Note that the Indian government has its own cloud storage service called DigiLocker which is free to use and available to smartphone users to store all their documents.
Along with cloud services, government employees are also required not to use VPN services, including NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Tor, and others. The directive also requires employees to currently use unauthorized remote administration tools such as TeamViewer, AnyDesk, and Ammyy Admin, among others. External email services are also prohibited from being used for official communications and conducting meetings and discussions of sensitive material. Even third-party video conferencing services are banned for internal meetings.
The order says: “All government employees, including temporary, contract/outsourced resources are required to strictly adhere to the guidelines outlined in this document. “Any non-compliance can be handled by the respective CISOs/heads of departments,” the report said.
Just before this happened, CERT issued a new directive for VPN service providers to store all suer data and even share it with the authorities when required. However, some VPN service providers call this an invasion of privacy and pull their servers off the coast of India.
