Following the threat of WannaCry/WannaCrypt Ransomware, which spreads across networks and holds files to ransom, the National Informatics Centre, Haryana on Monday issued an advisory listing best practices to prevent ransomware attacks.
The internet service in Haryana Secretariat was also suspended on Monday following the threat and the government work was affected for several hours. The government employees were asked to follow the advisory to prevent ransomware attacks.
The advisory stated that individuals or organisations should not pay the ransom, as this does not guarantee that files would be released. Such instances of fraud should be reported to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and law enforcement agencies, said an official spokesman.
He said that WannaCry encrypts the files on infected Windows systems. This ransomware spreads by using a vulnerability in implementation of Server Message Block (SMB) in Windows systems.
He said that to prevent ransomware attacks, people should maintain updated antivirus software on all systems. They should check regularly the integrity of the information stored in the databases and also check the contents of backup files of databases for any unauthorised encrypted contents of data records or external elements, such as backdoors or malicious scripts.
The advisory also cautioned against opening attachments in unsolicited e-mails, even if they come from people in their contact list, added the spokesman.