Porn surfing risk to national security, babus told

NEW DELHI: Watching porn in the workplace is a risk to the nation's security, the home ministry has warned babus. In a recent advisory to all officials, the ministry's cyber security wing has asked bureaucrats not to click on any external links on their emails as these frequently open to pornographic websites, which are a major source of hacking. The communication also warms against emails with lottery announcements for the same reason.

Sources in the ministry said nearly 2 lakh hacking cases were being reported from different agencies across the country every day. Most of these were taking place from China, Pakistan and some African countries, mainly Nigeria, an official said.

Though the advisory does not specifically mention pornography, officials said porn surfing was common in various ministries.

"Despite repeated warnings by the home ministry, officials of many vital wings of the government keep surfing pornographic sites during office hours using official computers, resulting in penetration of spyware from foreign hackers," a ministry official said.

The home ministry has in the past asked all ministries and departments not to keep any file of strategic importance in internet-connected computers.

There have been reports that foreign hackers recently penetrated the defence ministry's computer system and accessed information related to India's strategic matters.

One such case is currently being investigated by the Army as it involved a major who was posted in Arunachal Pradesh.

He had kept a number of important files in his personal computer, which was linked to the internet. His files had been hacked by Pakistan's ISI, resulting in the leak of vital information.