More than 120 computers in different State Government department connected to Gujarat State Wide Area Network known as GSWAN have been hit by ransomware virus ‘WannCry’.
Talking to The Pioneer Dhananjay Dwivedi, secretary Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat said that Government functioning might adversely affected for few days but none of the affected computers had valuable data.
As a precautionary measure computers that were functioning normally had also been shut down which then affected the routine work at the State Secretariat on Tuesday. Computers linked with GSWAN in various district collectors’ offices too been affected by the ransomware attack. Sources in the State Government reiterated that there was no major data loss.
According to an official process of installing anti-virus software as well as up-gradation of operating system in computers connected to GSWAN have been initiated to prevent such hacking attacks. About 60,000 computers have anti-virus software and security features. A few locally connected computers are under threat. For them an advisory has been issued to prevent from the attack. Across the globe more than 10,000 organisations in 150 countries have been adversely affected following ransomware attack since last Friday. The attack was carried out by a ransomware dubbed as ‘WanaCrypt0r 2.0’ or WannaCry. It is type of malware designed to prevent access to a system until a sum of money is paid in Bitcoins.
Meanwhile, sources in the Gujarat Government said that six computers at Mehsana collector office by the ransomware virus attack. A message asking for bitcoins worth certain amount to retrieve the data too emerged on computer screen. Following the message on the affected computers, district collector Aalok Pandey decided to shut down all the computers in his office.