In an attempt to create a foolproof system and maintain secrecy of confidential documents, the AAP Government has directed its top officers to hold periodic inspections to ensure that user IDs and passwords of official mails of their employees are frequently changed and should not be shared with any unauthorised people.
AAP Government special secretary (Vigilance) VS Rawat issued these directions following a circular was issued by the Central Vigilance Commission stating that in many cases related to banking and insurance sectors and organisations functioning in a computerised environment, frauds were being perpetrated on account of the officers sharing their user ID and password with unauthorised people. The circular said such frauds were being committed as officers were not disabling their ID and passwords on getting transferred or while proceeding on long leave. It said the ditto was the case with officers who either retire or are placed under suspension.
The circular said, “ The Commission is of the view that periodic change of passwords by officers would be an important preventive vigilance measure to address these issues. Mail IDs, user IDs etc for accessing the secure systems should be disabled once an officer superannuates/placed under suspension/not required to perform any function on account of proceeding on long-leave, training, deputation, transfer etc. Introducing a provision in the system/software itself at a pre-decided time period (i.e. a fortnight or a month) to change password could also be one of the options for preventing misuse of unauthorised persons.”
The Union Government circular, issued by CVC officer on special duty J Vinod Kumar, said the officers also need to ensure that periodic surprise inspections were carried out by them to see whether the user IDs and passwords are being shared by their staff with any unauthorised people.
Earlier, the Commission had advised the Chief Vigilance Officers of all Public Sector banks to ensure secrecy of employees’ passwords and also keep on changing them frequently so that frauds being committed on account of misuse of passwords were avoided.
The circular said the CVOs of banks were to take suitable action and regularly monitor secrecy of passwords and any instance of casual approach by any password holder was to be dealt ruthlessly by the concerned bank as the same could put huge funds at risk.
“It appears that the spirit of the circular is not being implemented. The CVOs, may, therefore bring the above punitive measures to the notice of concerned authorities in their organisation…The CVOs are further advised to send an action report in this regard of the verification conducted by them or the supervisory officers in their organization within a month by mail…”