Central Pollution Control Board urges employees not to use torrents, download pirated software to curb cyber attacks

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The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) warned its employees not to access torrents through the office network, just weeks after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was hit by a massive ransomware attack that forced it to suspend many of its digital operations.

The CPCB stated in a set of cybersecurity guidelines issued on December 5th, "Kindly do not use the office network for accessing restricted P2P networks such as torrents." Moneycontrol has reviewed the guidelines.

Torrent is a method of distributing files over the internet that is primarily used for illegally downloading or uploading movies, music, and software. The lack of system safety checks also exposes torrent users to the risk of downloading viruses, trojans, and malware.

Another CPCB guideline, closely related to the one on torrents, urged employees not to install any pirated software.

Also Read: AIIMS-like ransomware attacks will continue unless there is proper cyber hygiene: Google

"No official shall download or install and pirated software on the computer systems as they are illegal and can create a backdoor entry to the system through trojans, etc," CPCB said.

A major ransomware attack hit the country's leading hospital and research institute, AIIMS, last month, rendering centralised records inaccessible. Hospital services such as generation of unique health identification numbers, new registrations, laboratory reports, billing and patient discharge were also hit.

No personal laptop

Employees were also advised not to connect personal laptop computers to the body's network.

"..as any unsecured system may compromise the security of the entire network," the guideline said.

In addition, the guidelines advised against using a third-party VPN through the office network and urged users to use the VPN provided by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

"Kindly minimise the use of USB-based external storage solution such as pen drive, external HDD as they may infect the computer and entire network. Instead the Briefcase feature available on NIC mail can be used for sharing large files," said CPCB in another guideline.

Other guidelines

• CPCB advised against uploading PDFs containing official information to any website for document splitting.
• Keep automatic updates enabled on computer system, the body advised.
• The body advised against connecting a computer on the CPCB network to a personal Wi-Fi hotspot.
• Ensure that the antivirus software provided by the IT division is installed on the system, it added.