J&K government bans use of pen drives to enhance cybersecurity and protect sensitive data

J&K government on Monday directed all administrative departments in the civil secretariat and deputy commissioner offices across districts not to use pen drives on official devices, a move aimed at upholding data sovereignty and preventing security breaches.

The government also directed them not to use public platforms such as WhatsApp and unsecured online services like iLovePDF for processing, sharing or storing official or confidential materials.

The order, issued by M Raju, commissioner secretary, General Administration Department, said the decisions were taken to enhance the cybersecurity posture of the Union Territory, protect sensitive government information and minimise the risks of data breaches, malware infections and unauthorised access.


Earlier this month, the J&K government had said in response to a query under the Right to Information that 91 websites were still in non-working condition due to the non-availability of a 'Safe to Host' certificate. In May, around Operation Sindoor, officials had said that there were about 1.5 million cyberattacks on Indian websites, including most of the official websites in J&K.

"In exceptional cases where operational needs justify their use, controlled whitelisting may be permitted for up to 2-3 pen drives per department upon formal requests routed through the respective administrative head to the state informatics officer, National Informatics Centre (NIC)," said the order.