New Delhi, June 15: The Indian Army has gathered
cold feet to social networking sites, fearing chat by the
forces personnel, who are online members, may lead to leak in
sensitive security information.
The Army recently re-issued a circular to personnel
asking them not to post their employment information on sites
like Orkut and Facebook.
The circular, which is sent out from time to time to
all units nationwide, has been re-issued recently to create
awareness on information security among Net-savvy personnel,
army sources said here today.
The note, sources said, instructed the personnel to
immediately remove such information they may have been posted
so that they could avoid questions from other net users on
their army service.
It is a matter of national security. The personnel
may be befriended online by enemies to extract information
such as his place of posting, unit and rank that he may give
out inadvertently, sources said.
Though there was no official estimate of how many of
the 1.1-million-strong army personnel may be hooked to such
networking sites, the number could be a high, the army sources
said.
Moreover, leaving such information online went against
service rules of army personnel and it could invite
disciplinary action for violating "good order and discipline",
that attract imprisonment, sources added.
Bureau Report
