According to reports, the use of pen drives has become a major threat to cyber security in defence forces. Despite its ban some while ago, pen drives are still in heavy use among defence personnel. Almost 70 percent of the breaches happening in this sector have its roots on pen drives. 

According to a senior army official, pen drives which are mainly manufactured in China has emerged as a huge threat to cyber security systems. Due to this increasing concern, new security guidelines have been issued by Army headquarters to protect sensitive military networks from hackers.

Navy and Airforce have also raised concerns regarding the security of their networks. Indian Air Force recently issued instructions to its personnel asking them to avoid storage of official data on pen drives and personal computers. IAF also asked its personnel to disclose information on their IT assets. 

Those who fail to meet these instructions will be subjected to strict action from concerned authorities. If any of the personnel is found guilty of breaching security, then they could even face court martial. Reports claim that there have been instances where officials make use of pen drive to transfer official data to their personal computers. However due to inefficient security systems on personal computers, classified data becomes susceptible to hacking attempts. 

To counter the issue of cyber threats, National Security Council is planning to designate intelligence agencies that will focus of tracing the areas which are prone to attack from hackers. Hopefully in a couple of years, all networks of defence authorities will be secured and use of pen drives will be completely taken off.

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