In a latest development, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a constitutionally established federal body has banned the use of social media in all of its offices across Pakistan.

A notification in this regard, orders to block social media websites including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and others in ECP’s national secretariat in Islamabad and also in its all provincial offices.

The ECP officials says that this ban will ensure the optimal use of resources and to prevent any kind of cyber-attacks. PTCL and NTC will help the authority to block all social media websites in its offices, so the employees can’t access them.

Banning social media and video streaming sites on ECP networks will actually reduce cyber attacks and also ensure the discipline of using electronic resources up to the optimum level.

Cyber Attacks through Social Media?

ECP is right about using the allocated resources for the right purpose, as most of govt. employees abuse the internet privilege and use social media and do illegal downloads during office hours using govt. property. However, the cyber-attack through social media theory doesn’t make any sense, as most of these websites are quite secure.

There’s a Workaround and it would Compromise Security:

I think that banning social media will contribute towards a possible cyber-attack instead. Since all these websites will be banned, the “hard-working” employees will opt for proxy networks and VPNs to access them, leaving the sensitive data readily accessible to the hackers.

ECP should educate its employees, not to abuse the resources rather than putting a ban on them which could contribute towards major security risks. What are your thoughts?