{"id":162146,"date":"2024-10-26T18:14:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T18:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/26\/centre-works-on-security-as-it-weighs-moving-classified-files-to-e-office\/"},"modified":"2024-10-26T18:14:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T18:14:33","slug":"centre-works-on-security-as-it-weighs-moving-classified-files-to-e-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/26\/centre-works-on-security-as-it-weighs-moving-classified-files-to-e-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Centre works on security as it weighs moving classified files to e-Office"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Centre<\/div>\n
New Delhi: The Centre is considering bringing in confidential, or ‘classified’, government files onto the digital e-Office<\/a> format, ET has learnt.<\/p>\n

Currently, only non-classified files are put in the e-Office format.<\/p>\n

It is gathered that high-level discussions are underway among key stakeholder ministries and departments, including the ministry of electronics & information technology, National Technical Research Organization, National Informatics Centre<\/a> (NIC), ministry of home affairs and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Personnel Grievances, to devise security<\/a> protocols to onboard the classified files<\/a> on to the e-Office network.<\/p>\n

The NIC-run e-Office suite of applications basically enables digital or paperless movement of government correspondence, replacing the ubiquitous ‘sarkari’ file. It is advocated for ushering in greater transparency and accountability in government decision-making processes besides improved record keeping in digital format.<\/p>\n

In fact, the idea of bringing in all government files including the confidential ones onto the e-office has been mulled for a while now, including right at the cabinet secretariat level, but it has been held back on account of security concerns.<\/p>\n


However, the latest rounds of meetings indicate that it may be achievable with higher security protocols built into the e-Office platform. Multiple Factor Authentication<\/a> (MFA) and a heightened Virtual Private Network<\/a> (VPN) interface are among the add on security barriers under consideration to bolster the system for confidential files, ET has gathered.Discussions are expected to be taken up with union ministries over the next few weeks to bring all departments on board with the plan, address concerns and take up suggestions, where felt necessary.All round consensus with various ministries besides a thorough cyber security<\/a> vetting will be necessary before a final protocol on the same can be notified.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the Centre held various rounds of reviews even before opening its Virtual Private Network to its deputy secretaries to enable them to work on the office file after office hours and from home, if required.<\/p>\n

Onboarding classified files, though, has always been a tricky area and one predicated on the ability to create a foolproof security armour around sensitive information.<\/p>\n

Government documents are ‘classified’ or restricted from public access through various categories such as ‘secret’, ‘top secret’ and ‘confidential’ as per Manual of Departmental Security Instructions, 1994.<\/p>\n

Various factors such as national security, national interest and potentiality to hamper the government in its functioning are taken into consideration at the time of security classification of the documents, as per home ministry replies in Parliament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last revision to the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP)-which details the rulebook on movement of a typical government file-categorically states that no classified information shall be handled through e-Office.<\/p>\n

It specified that classified documents (secret and top secret) shall strictly be carried out only in a standalone computer or connected on a dedicated network air gaped from internet.<\/p>\n

Over the years, most union ministries-save security sensitive departments-have onboarded to e-Office. All attached, subordinate offices and autonomous bodies have also followed suit this year.<\/p>\n

Alongside, several security protocols have been tightened across government offices in view of cyber threats.
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Delhi: The Centre is considering bringing in confidential, or ‘classified’, government files onto the digital e-Office format, ET has learnt. Currently, only non-classified files are put in the e-Office format. It is gathered that high-level discussions are underway among key stakeholder ministries and departments, including the ministry of electronics & information technology, National Technical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-114631360,imgsize-19494.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[411,1285,126159,126162,25754,79426,79429,563,126161,19620,126160,100419,3321,2441,56089,22303,4053],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162148,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162146\/revisions\/162148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}