Amid incidents of ransomware cyber attacks in some parts of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the Government on Monday said there was no serious impact of the malware in the country.
“There is no major impact in India unlike other countries. However, we are alert and keeping a close watch. As per the information received so far, there have been isolated incidents in limited areas in West Bengal, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh,” Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
However, the Centre on Monday advised all those who are working in strategic and sensitive fields to use stand-alone computers sans internet to store data and critical information. The advisory has been sent to all those who handle sensitive desks in the Ministries of Home, Finance, Defence, External Affairs and security agencies as a precautionary measure.
Capital markets regulator Sebi and top stock exchanges have also beefed up their cyber security systems to ward off any threat from the dreaded ransomware.
India is on high alert, monitoring critical networks across sectors like banking, telecom, power and aviation to ensure that systems are protected in the wake of reports of possible cyber attack by ransomware ‘WannaCry’ on the country’s vital networks.
‘WannaCry’ has disrupted networks in over 150 countries, including Russia and the UK, and is being termed as one of the most widespread cyber attacks in the history. Reports suggest that over two lakh systems globally could have been infected by the malicious software.
India’s cyber security unit CERT-In earlier said it has not received any formal report of cyber attack on India’s vital networks. “Everything seems to be normal, so far. No reports have come to CERT-In. We have been in touch with Microsoft and others...Even they have not got any reports,” Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) director general Sanjay Bahl said.
But reports from Kochi said that two Government offices in Kerala were on Monday hit with messages demanding $300 in virtual currency to unlock encrypted files. The suspected ransomware attack was identified in computers at the offices of the Thariyode Village Panchayat in Wayanad district and Aruvapulam Village Panchayat in Pathanamthitta district. Unconfirmed reports late Monday evening said similar issue was found in computers at the office of another village panchayat in Pathanamthitta.
However, employees at the local bodies’ offices said the suspected ransomware had not done much harm. “We hope no big harm has been caused to our systems. Some files were found encrypted and inaccessible but we haven’t lost any vital data,” claimed an employee of the Thariyode Grama Panchayat.
Four of the total ten computers at the Wayanad office and two at the Aruvapulam office had been hit. The extent of the reported problem at the second Pathanamthitta panchayat was not clear. Employees at Thariyode panchayat said messages that appeared on screen had demanded $300 in virtual currency for enabling decryption of affected files.
The suspected malware is believed to have hit the computers on Friday. “We opened the computers in the morning today (Monday) as we do every day and that was when the issue was noticed. Efforts are on to backup the files in the affected systems,” said an employee of the Thariyode panchayat.
Meanwhile, reports from Kolkata said Ransomware has now travelled to West Midnapore infecting the computer installations of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company limited, bringing daily business to a standstill in at least four places, sources WBSEDCl said.
Dozens of computer network in at least three districts went kaput following WannaCrypt attack, sources said adding though power distribution was not as yet affected other vital services like billing and cash receipt against monthly bills was severely hit.
According to reports the crypto-Ransomware bug had hit PCs in four power sub-stations at Belda, Danton, Narayangarh and Keshiyari blocks in West Midnapore, sources said not ruling out chances of the malware hitting other networks.
Apart from West Midnapore, computers in East Midnapore had also been affected sources in the district administration said adding information was being collected regarding what is perhaps one of the worst cyber attacks in the region.
Computers were also affected in South Dinajpur in North Bengal sources said. PCs were hit in the district headquarters at Balurghat and Jadunathpur blocks it was informed.
The cyber bug WanaCrypt0r 2.0 encrypts data on a computer within seconds of hitting it. It then displays the message asking the user to pay US$ 300 to get the access to the attacked computer restored. Chinmoy Mondal a State Electricity Board Staff said “as we tried to open the computers in the morning the machines refused to open. To our dismay they read a message asking for USD 300 within six hours to get the services restored.”
Another Power Department official said “everything from money receipt billing and other important files cannot be accessed. Work has been brought to a virtual standstill.” It was warned that if ransom was not paid within the given time then the files would be deleted, he said.