Union Law and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently warned social media giant Facebook of stringent action for any attempt to influence polls through data theft.
Indian government has warned citizens against sharing their vote preferences or AADHAR card details over social media or on mobile phone applications, following Facebook privacy breach scares, over the past week. The Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) has issued this advisory.
It combats phishing, hacking threats and fortifies the country's internet domain. "They should never share details like their vote preferences, PIN, passwords, credit card details, banking details, passport information, Aadhaar card and all those details which are meant to be kept as a secret for personal safety and security," an advisory issued by CERT-In said.
"Facebook admitted that there had been a data breach as personal data was used by various external parties for unauthorised activities. In the wake of this development, users are advised to take diligent measures to safeguard their personal data," it said.
The advisory also asks users to immediately approach the help desk of the concerned social media platform in case of a data breach incident, and also lodge a complaint with the cyber wing of the police.
"Do not open the messages/images received from untrusted sources or received unexpectedly from trusted sources. Use strong account-specific passwords and a mix of different types of characters to make the password harder to crack," it states.
The advisory also asked the users to "close" unused accounts as they could be compromised without their knowledge.
"Assess the applications being used in your mobile devices or browsers as most of the applications either use Facebook or Google to sign in. Also, keep all mobile apps updated along with regularly updating the security settings on social networks," it said.
Union Law and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently warned social media giant Facebook of stringent action for any attempt to influence polls through data theft. He had even threatened to summon its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The Ministry of Information and Technology had last week asked UK-based Cambridge Analytica - the firm at the centre of the date breach scandal -- to furnish a list of clients and the source of data it had collected from India.
The notice came after reports suggested that political parties had used the data analytics firm for furthering their poll prospects.
CERT-In said users of cyberspace should follow best practices such as not posting private information and non-disclosure of an individual's location. "Facebook being part of a public network could allow easy access to information which should not be disclosed," it said.
—(With agency inputs)
IT Ministry acts
The Ministry of Information and Technology had last week asked UK-based Cambridge Analytica - the firm at the centre of the date breach scandal -- to furnish a list of clients and the source of data it had collected from India. The notice came after reports suggested that political parties had used the data analytics firm for furthering their poll prospects
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