On Monday, several websites of the ministry were not accessible as they had been taken offline following the security instructions. These included websites with data on soldiers of the Para Regiment from a pay office in Bangalore and the Belgaum based Maratha Light Infantry pay office. It is not yet clear how many websites disclosed this sensitive data or how many soldiers would be impacted by the leak, reports Gadegtsnow.
The pay linked websites of the defence ministry have had a chequered history, with hackers compromising the Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (officers) in 2015, with fears that personal details had been leaked. The site had to be taken offline and re-launched with new security features.
In the wake of the incident, the ministry issued strict orders to revise the security protocols of the websites and also asked the concerned departments to furnish action-taken reports to curb the data leak.
The ministry has issued instructions on disclosure of sensitive information to all the concerned departments and has advised them to immediately take down the leaked data and control access to the websites in order to prevent misuse of the data, reports inc42.com.