MeitY pushes for BharatVC for secure video conferencing among government staff

The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has urged government employees to use only the National Informatics Centre-developed platform BharatVC for video conferencing, saying it is a more secure and encrypted platform.

Updating the cybersecurity guidelines for government employees, MeitY said NIC had developed a "private and secure conferencing platform over the Internet to ensure encrypted and safe video communication".

The National Informatics Centre, a body under MeitY, meets the information and communications technology (ICT) needs at all levels of the government by designing and developing IT systems,

Over the last two years, video conferencing has emerged as a pervasive tool for business continuity and sustained social connection. However, it has also increased the risk of cyberattacks.

Its features

MeitY said the servers established for BharatVC were in its premises and that the traffic "is under control and does not go outside NIC".

BharatVC has a three-tier authentication process, firewall, provision of private meeting rooms, security certificate implemented with HTTPs, controlled usage option and so on.

In the near future, BharatVC would be used as a single source of video conferences, the ministry said.

Being cautious

Despite its secure setup, MeitY has urged employees not to share sensitive information during video conferences.

"Though Bharat VC solution provides secure/encrypted communication of VC traffic, the participant(s) should not discuss/share information of the project or organisation, which is considered sensitive in nature," the guidelines said.

"The end-point system device being used for video conference should have licensed and updated antivuris. The browser and OS should be updated with latest patches to deter any possible data leakage/compromise during the conduct of VC session.”

Previous updates

In September, the government updated the guidelines to include provisions for securing the local area networks (LAN) of ministries and departments and logging requirements among others.

The guidelines said all government applications, websites, and services should be hosted at data centres or cloud service providers approved by MeitY.

Such applications should not be hosted on the LAN segment of ministries or departments.

"All ICT devices should be connected via the internet gateway of NIC's network (i.e. NICNET) and any other direct internet connection i.e. broadband, 3G/4G/5G should be withdrawn with immediate effect," the guidelines read.

The government had in June first issued strict guidelines for its employees, including contract workers.

“The increasing adoption and use of ICT has increased the attack surface and threat perception to the government, due to lack of proper cyber security practices followed on the ground, the guidelines said.

The government said that the guidelines were being drawn to sensitise employees and contractual workers towards cyber security.