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By Pradip R Sagar
Published: 01st Mar 2015 06:09:01 AM
NEW DELHI: After the arrest of a Ministry of Defence (MoD) employee for corporate espionage, the South Block is in panic mode. The ministry security has issued a warning to all defence officials to be extra careful while handling classified information and directed everyone “not to communicate” anything over phone.
Recently, an official from a foreign embassy, posing as a joint secretary of the MoD, sought sensitive information on telephone from a senior officer of a service headquarters. Without revealing the identity of the person, the note mentioned that the said officer, who failed to check the identity of the caller, revealed sensitive information on telephone under the impression that it was a call from the joint secretary concerned. Sources have indicated that these calls could be from neighbouring countries.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar
Alerting ministry officials about the snooping, the Chief Security Officer said that “no form of telephonic conversation, including intercom and hotline is secure”. Every care has to be taken to prevent inadvertent leakage of information while discussing official matters over the telephone.
In this regard an internal communication, seen by The Sunday Standard, was issued on February 23 by the Chief Security Officer, responsible for security of all defence headquarters zone, in which he warned all defence officials about the security breach.
While mentioning instances where classified information had been compromised, the security officer talked about call spoofing. The note said that some foreign inimical agencies had been calling up members of the Armed forces, posing as officials from the MoD. They were also using telephone numbers which appear as Indian telephone numbers and seeking sensitive information about deployment, movement and other information of tactical and strategic nature through such calls to military establishments. “Such unscrupulous activities embarked upon by these agencies pose a serious security threat,” Chief Security Officer said.
Recently, the director general of military intelligence, in a communication to the Indian military establishment, had warned that “Pakistan-based intelligence operatives (PIO) are calling staff officers to senior officers at all levels to extract information.” MI communication also said that from the numbers flashed, these calls appeared to have originated from Delhi-based defence zones and “on many occasions the caller identified himself as an officer from the RAW, IB or IAF, leading the recipient to accept the genuineness of the caller on face value.”
While giving out instructions to handle classified information, the internal note said that no file or documents containing classified information will be kept in open or carried by unauthorised persons. Officers in charge of classified documents are responsible for their safe custody and their disclosure is limited to only those who are directly concerned with them in their performance of duty.
“The loss of any document in office or in transit will be reported immediately, with full details, to the security office,” the CSO said. Besides making records of classified fax or photocopy, the ministry also mentioned the size of the shredding of the classified papers.
“All top secret, secret and other classified documents are to be destroyed by shredding under the supervision of a high-ranking officer. In no circumstances shall any office-waste of classified nature be allowed to fall in the hand of unauthorised persons,” document further stated.
The MoD has earlier been in the news for leaking of its classified documents. A prime accused in the 2006 Navy War Room Leak case—where sensitive naval documents were leaked by a network of serving and retired defence officers—Abhishek Verma is now in jail under the violation Official Secrets Act for possessing secret documents of the ministry.
Verma’s estranged business partner, a US-based attorney, had forwarded these classified documents to the MoD. Subsequently, the CBI arrested a former Wing commander of the IAF for providing secret documents to Verma. These documents relating to the Air Force’s acquisition plans for 2009-10 and 2011-12, minutes of a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council, and so on, landed in the hands of defence agents. It clearly pointed to a nexus between the middlemen and top officials in the Service headquarters.
Apart from leakage of classified documents, the MoD also raised concerns regarding cyber security. Recently, there have been incidents where
computers at the ministry of defence were hacked into, leading to a ban on the use of dongles for Internet and laptops with features such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The defence security corps has been asked to keep a close watch on movement of visitors in the South Block. In fact, they are not even sparing the bureaucrats working in the South Block and the bags and briefcases of every defence ministry employee are being thoroughly checked.
MoD Wears War Paint to Spot Moles and Hang up on Snooping -The New Indian Express
Published: 01st Mar 2015 06:09:01 AM
NEW DELHI: After the arrest of a Ministry of Defence (MoD) employee for corporate espionage, the South Block is in panic mode. The ministry security has issued a warning to all defence officials to be extra careful while handling classified information and directed everyone “not to communicate” anything over phone.
Recently, an official from a foreign embassy, posing as a joint secretary of the MoD, sought sensitive information on telephone from a senior officer of a service headquarters. Without revealing the identity of the person, the note mentioned that the said officer, who failed to check the identity of the caller, revealed sensitive information on telephone under the impression that it was a call from the joint secretary concerned. Sources have indicated that these calls could be from neighbouring countries.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar
Alerting ministry officials about the snooping, the Chief Security Officer said that “no form of telephonic conversation, including intercom and hotline is secure”. Every care has to be taken to prevent inadvertent leakage of information while discussing official matters over the telephone.
In this regard an internal communication, seen by The Sunday Standard, was issued on February 23 by the Chief Security Officer, responsible for security of all defence headquarters zone, in which he warned all defence officials about the security breach.
While mentioning instances where classified information had been compromised, the security officer talked about call spoofing. The note said that some foreign inimical agencies had been calling up members of the Armed forces, posing as officials from the MoD. They were also using telephone numbers which appear as Indian telephone numbers and seeking sensitive information about deployment, movement and other information of tactical and strategic nature through such calls to military establishments. “Such unscrupulous activities embarked upon by these agencies pose a serious security threat,” Chief Security Officer said.
Recently, the director general of military intelligence, in a communication to the Indian military establishment, had warned that “Pakistan-based intelligence operatives (PIO) are calling staff officers to senior officers at all levels to extract information.” MI communication also said that from the numbers flashed, these calls appeared to have originated from Delhi-based defence zones and “on many occasions the caller identified himself as an officer from the RAW, IB or IAF, leading the recipient to accept the genuineness of the caller on face value.”
While giving out instructions to handle classified information, the internal note said that no file or documents containing classified information will be kept in open or carried by unauthorised persons. Officers in charge of classified documents are responsible for their safe custody and their disclosure is limited to only those who are directly concerned with them in their performance of duty.
“The loss of any document in office or in transit will be reported immediately, with full details, to the security office,” the CSO said. Besides making records of classified fax or photocopy, the ministry also mentioned the size of the shredding of the classified papers.
“All top secret, secret and other classified documents are to be destroyed by shredding under the supervision of a high-ranking officer. In no circumstances shall any office-waste of classified nature be allowed to fall in the hand of unauthorised persons,” document further stated.
The MoD has earlier been in the news for leaking of its classified documents. A prime accused in the 2006 Navy War Room Leak case—where sensitive naval documents were leaked by a network of serving and retired defence officers—Abhishek Verma is now in jail under the violation Official Secrets Act for possessing secret documents of the ministry.
Verma’s estranged business partner, a US-based attorney, had forwarded these classified documents to the MoD. Subsequently, the CBI arrested a former Wing commander of the IAF for providing secret documents to Verma. These documents relating to the Air Force’s acquisition plans for 2009-10 and 2011-12, minutes of a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council, and so on, landed in the hands of defence agents. It clearly pointed to a nexus between the middlemen and top officials in the Service headquarters.
Apart from leakage of classified documents, the MoD also raised concerns regarding cyber security. Recently, there have been incidents where
computers at the ministry of defence were hacked into, leading to a ban on the use of dongles for Internet and laptops with features such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The defence security corps has been asked to keep a close watch on movement of visitors in the South Block. In fact, they are not even sparing the bureaucrats working in the South Block and the bags and briefcases of every defence ministry employee are being thoroughly checked.
MoD Wears War Paint to Spot Moles and Hang up on Snooping -The New Indian Express
