J&K Govt Bans Use of Pen Drives in Offices, Introduces GovDrive

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has issued an official order banning the use of pen drives (USB storage devices) on all government computers and official devices across the Union Territory.

According to the circular, the decision has been taken to strengthen cybersecurity and prevent data leaks, malware infections, and unauthorized access to sensitive government files.

The order makes it clear that:

General use of pen drives is banned.

In rare cases, a department may keep only 2–3 pen drives, but these must be approved through the Administrative Secretary, reconfigured by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and registered with ownership details.

Popular apps like WhatsApp and online tools such as iLovePDF are also prohibited for official use.

Instead, the government has rolled out GovDrive, a secure, cloud-based storage and sharing platform. Each officer will receive 50 GB of storage space with centralized monitoring, enabling safe file transfer across devices.

Officials have been directed to rely only on GovDrive, e-Office, and other secure government channels for communication and document sharing, in line with guidelines from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and CERT-In.

The notification emphasizes that these steps are necessary to safeguard confidential government data in an era of rising cyber threats.