Experts dismiss buzz that ATMS are at risk of WannaCry virus

NEW DELHI: Bank ATMs across India could escape the WannaCry worm global attack that locks computers and demands a ransom, but other networks remain vulnerable as the malware crept into the West Bengal electricity distributor’s systems on Monday.

Indian cyber security experts said 80% of Indian ATMs operate on Windows XP and uses a firmware that limits the machine’s activities to bare basics such as dispensing cash on request and checking the account balance.

Other activities are blacklisted, preventing a ransomware from attacking an ATM.

Speculation swirled in India over the safety of ATMs after WannaCry crippled more than 200,000 computer systems in banks, hospitals across 150 countries since Friday.

India’s cyber security agency alerted Internet users against the worm that locks down files of an infected computer and asks the user to pay a ransom of $300 in Bitcoin virtual currency to unlock the system.

The worm takes advantage of a Windows vulnerability that Microsoft released a security patch for in March and computers that hadn’t updated were still at risk.

At least eight computers of the state-run power utility in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district were affected on Monday.

The hacked computers displayed messages demanding $300 in Bitcoin.

“This is a matter of serious concern. Work was disrupted today, but we are fortunate that the same set of data was stored separately in the central server of the utility in Kolkata,” state power minister Sovandeb Chatterjee said. Experts cautioned that this is high time for banks to update the software used in ATMs.

“Most ATMs in India use white-listing services to eliminate threats from malwares and worms within their internal networks. WannaCry doesn’t look like something that will affect the ATMs, unlike personal or corporate endpoints,” said Saket Modi, the co-founder of Lucideus — an IT risk assessment and digital security services provider.

The fear of losing money and crucial banking data is palpable as hackers last October attacked a server linked to Indian ATMs and corrupted more than 3 million cards issued by 19 banks.

The attack was on one of the companies that provide the ATM switch — a payment transfer engine that allows the cash dispensing machine’s software to connect to interbank networks.

EXPERTS, HOWEVER, CAUTIONED THAT THIS WAS HIGH TIME FOR BANKS TO UPDATE THE SOFTWARE USED IN ATMS.