Not surprised. I have known staff in govt departments run computers without any anti-virus and anti-malware programs, and also to disable the built-in firewalls. Also, use floppy disks (fortunately virtually extinct now) and CD/DVD etc that have been used on unsecured computers.
It is great to know that our Defence Research and Development Organisation doesn't know how to secure their systems even at the most basic level. Blocking (not favoured)websites is the basic function of any system administrator and it is hard to believe that the system administrator did not perform its basic functions. There is really something deeper in this story, which probably may never come out. Maybe we are seeing a new method of selling informations.
Most of the DRDO Internet facing computers have an insecure operating system from Redmond with free back-doors. It is moot as to whether these have been hoisted on the DRDO systems with the blessings of the NSA or some-such spy agency. These machines have to be taken off the Internet, installed with a secure, audit-capable operating system/app suite, preferably GNU/Linux at the earliest. The DRDO officials are ignorant about current security threats and vulnerabilities, they blissfully continue using this broken operating system from Redmond, praising the ease of use of this OS. Do they want to break the DRDO apart by compromising our security? Are their political masters listening?
What kind of System Administrator does DRDO have? It is very easy to configure the device so tht only certain sites are accessible or that only emails can be sent. And if DRDO officials do not follow standard operating procedures, prosecute them for crimminal negligence.
like all evils, blasts or scams that happened in India in the last 8 years, lets blame the UPA for it. Rediff can do an article on how modern Computers and communications systems weren't procured for DRDO by the govt and for this lapse the Defence Minister should resign. Please go ahead. :-(
All organisations have IT Officers and IT Policies to prevent any leakage of official secrets. Intranets are used for all types of official emails and any Internet is not allowed. Govt. must order enquiries by experts what these IT officers were doing while IT policiies were being flouted. And how were the policies actually flouted. This should enable analysis and formulation of modified policies.
