Three Army officers suspected of disclosing military information on Facebook

NEW DELHI: In yet another case of leaking of military information through social media, three Army officers are now under the scanner for divulging location of battalions while indulging in salacious chats on Facebook.

Sources said a colonel, who is re-employed at the Army War College in Mhow after retirement, a major from the Rajput Regiment and a lieutenant from the Ordnance Corps have been found prima facie guilty of giving out parts of the ORBAT (order of battle) in clear violation of laid-down security protocols.

"It looks like an online honey-trap since they were lured into the chats by a person posing as an attractive woman, who had posted suggestive pictures, on Facebook. The officers were having sexually explicit chats with the person, who in exchange often asked them specific information about the location of units and brigades," said a source.

While the three officers will now face punishment, either through administrative action or disciplinary action in the shape of a court-martial, the directorate general of military intelligence has written to all Army formations in the country to reiterate the existing social media and cyber-security norms.

Incidentally, several officers have been punished through court-martial in recent years for posting "classified information" like the location of a battalion or a warship, or their patrolling patterns, on social networking websites, as earlier reported by TOI.

The Army directives hold that military personnel should maintain operational security as well as follow the same high standards of conduct online as they pursue offline. The personnel have been asked not to post their pictures on their profiles on networking websites, as also not disclose their affiliation to the Army.

Faced with ever-increasing attacks by Pakistani and Chinese online espionage agents, the Indian armed forces have taken serious note of the frequent "leaking" of confidential data and information through the internet.

This has also led to further tightening of cyber-security and computer usage norms, ranging from strict access control and proper firewalls to "air gap" between secure and insecure networks and curbs on use of digital storage devices.