Top government sources confirmed to Sputnik that the decision was prompted by specific inputs from the intelligence agencies that smart phones of ministers were most vulnerable to hacking by Pakistani and Chinese spies wanting to listen in to discussions pertaining to policy decisions.
The decision comes a day after India woke to the news of a massive cyberattack on its banking network. According to sources from the Minister of Information and Technology, hackers have accessed websites of more than 30 ministries and government departments over the last few weeks.
Meanwhile, recognizing the seriousness of the cyber security challenge, the Indian government plans to shortly set up a national cyber co-ordination center (NCCC) that will safeguard India’s cyberspace against potential threats. A separate center for detection and real time cleaning of botnets and malware will also be set up soon. Sources say that this decision was mainly prompted by the Scorpene Submarine data leak in August this year.
