Members of trade and industry are aware that various digital initiatives have been initiated by this Directorate recently with an objective to provide transparent, paperless, contactless, online services to the Trade Community. Under the revamped online systems, an exporter/importer’s identity is established by a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) Issued by Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) licensed Certifying Agencies (CAs) or through Aadhaar based e-sign.

2. In this context, Members of Trade & Industry are requested to take note of the following best practices to ensure safe and secure online transactions :

i. Always use a strong password. The longer and more complex your password, the more difficult it is to crack. Shorter and simpler passwords take less time and resources for hackers to compromise.

ii. Do not share your sensitive personal information (like usernames and passwords, OTP, PIN).

iii. Exporters are advised to check, from time to time, that duty credit scrips are accounted for and reflected in their online module, if such scrips have not been transferred/utilized by them.

DGFT advisory on Safe Custody of digital tokens, documents, scrips etc

iv. In case of any suspicion on unauthorized issuance of a DSC, the concerned firm is required to approach the Licensed CA immediately and also report the same to the CCA.

v. Regularly check the custody of DSC and ensure that it is not accessible to unscrupulous agents/ persons.

vi. Do not click on links or attachments from senders that you do not recognize. Be especially wary of .zip or other compressed or executable file types.

vii. Make sure you open any attachment or click on any link from an email id only if you know the sender and are expecting an email from them.

viii. Public WIFI is not as secure as the Office WIFI or your personal WIFI at home. It is advised not to access your Official/ Personal Email ID or to login to the DGFT Website using public WIFI.

ix. Watch for email senders that use suspicious or misleading domain names.

x. Inspect URLs carefully to make sure they’re legitimate and not imposter sites.

xi. Do not try to open any shared document that you’re not expecting to receive.

3. EPCs and Industry Associations are requested to sensitize their members about the need to be vigilant and prevent any online theft of duty credit scrips/certificates/authorizations.

4. These issues with approval of the Competent authority.
 

(Dr. Praveen Kumar)
Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade

[Issued from F.No.01/61/180/169/AM18/PC-3]