Home Ministry tightens noose, takes robust steps to block porn access for employees

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs has put in place a robust security system to check external attempts to infiltrate into its computer network, and block access to pornographic materials on its systems, officials said.

This came after former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had said that some subordinate staff in the MHA would see pornographic content on Internet and download malware in office, leading to compromise of the computer networks.

"Intrusion prevention system, intrusion detection system, anti-virus and anti-malware have been put in place. It is a very robust system to ensure foolproof security in the MHA computer networks," an official said. A network security policy, network security monitoring and fireball have also been put in place.

Another official said as the fireball has been installed, no employee in the MHA can watch pornography in office computers. The fireball against pornographic websites has been installed as such video clips may have attached

Addressing the maiden Finsec Conclave in Mumbai on Wednesday, Pillai had said, "When I was the Union Home Secretary almost 8-9 years ago, every 60 days we would find the entire computers compromised".

Pillai, who chairs the non-profit Data Security Council of India (DSCI) promoted by Nasscom, said senior ministry officials used to be busy with meetings till late in the evening because of which the subordinate staff would have to stay back in the offices for post-meeting work.

"So what will they (subordinates) do? They go and open the internet and they are on porn sites and so on and so forth, and download all sorts of things that come up with all the malware," he said.