RBI has asked banks to follow the instructions of government organisation CERT-In to prevent the attack by ransomware, ‘WannaCry’, which has impacted various IT networks in over 150 countries.
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has come out with list of dos and don’ts and webcast on how to protect networks from the global ransomware attack. It has been reported that a new ransomware ‘WannaCry’ is spreading widely, RBI advisory to the banks informed.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also asked all banks to put in place a software update at ATMs to prevent their systems from a malware that has attacked payment systems across the world. In a separate malware attack last year, 3.2 lakh debit card were compromised in the country.
According to reports Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are highly vulnerable to such malware attacks as they presently run on old version of Microsoft‘s Windows operating system, making a software security patch update a necessary exercise.There are a total of 2.2 lakh ATMs in India, of which many old ones run on Windows XP.
Over the weekend, the ransomware has hit systems in more than 150 countries, including Russia and the UK, in one of the most widespread cyber attacks in history. It infected computers running on older versions of Microsoft operating systems like XP, locking access to files on the computer.The cyber criminals have demanded a fee of about $300 in crypto-currencies like Bitcoin for unlocking the device.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had said yesterday that a few systems of the Police Department in Andhra Pradesh were impacted and that the state government has been informed to follow the advisory by the CERT-In.
By Baishakhi Dutta
