Precautionary action against cyber attacks disrupts services in Noida, Ggn

The cyber city of Gurugram has started feeling the adverse effects of Ransomware bug.

With system in tehsils across the city rendered nonfunctional, there has been on registration for land in the last three days. Normally, in a day, there are over 200 registrations occurring daily in the city.

The non-registration of land has resulted in losses of over hundred of crores to the state exchequer.

Other government services in the city, including the Regional Transportation Services and Passport services, have also been affected by the Ransomware virus attack.

In order to prevent their systems from getting bugged by the Ransomware virus and protect the vital data from being stolen, the state government is uploading anti-virus softwares in all their system.

The process of upgradation of computers has resulted in various government systems not functioning.

Being a hub of BPO'S and KPO'S, several precautions are also being taken by the private companies to save their data.

While there has not been any official confirmation, certain companies have reported data theft due to the ransomware virus.

“Most of the Information Technology companies do not wish to disclose the data theft to public agencies, as there are high rate clientele being served by such companies. Any disclosure can result in a major repercussion,” said an official from a tech company, who requested anonymity.

On their part, most of the IT companies have started taking vital precautions to protect their system from getting bugged by the ransomware virus.

Besides instillation of antivirus software, most officials in the IT companies have been told not to respond to any anonymous mails.

There have also been reports of certain ATM'S in the city being rendered non-functional due to the virus which has also taken a toll on financial transactions in the city.

Even as the reasons for technical issues have been cited, sources admit that the reason behind non-functioning of ATM'S is due to the precautions taken to prevent the ransomware bug affecting the systems.

On Tuesday, around 331 ATM'S in Faridabad were temporarily shut down due to the Wannacry virus.

Even Noida and Greater Noida were not spared of the ransomware attacks.

Following an advisory issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and district headquarters, banks and healthcare institutions across Noida and Greater Noida too have started upgrading their software systems with a security patch as a precautionary measure, in the wake of the Ransomware attack triggered by the Wannacry virus.

In the past few days, thousands of computers across the world have been locked up and users' files have been held at ransom, after being targeted by a ransomware virus.

This ransomware virus, known as Wannacry, takes over a computer's operating system once a user clicks on an infected file or an infected email.

Following this, the virus takes over the user's system and demands a ransom be paid in Bitcoin (virtual money) to let user access his/her data again.

In most cases, it has been observed that the malware infects computers through links or attachments through phishing emails.

In the wake of this, the Noida Police's Centre for Cyber Crime Investigation (CCCI) issued an advisory for residents.

“One should avoid clicking on any unknown link on websites or any suspicious emails or download links. They mainly target the banks, ATMS and health sectors, as they are vulnerable to malware attacks as they run on old operating system,” said Dinesh Yadav, Superintendent of Police, Noida.

Yadav said these institutions and their systems are considered an easy target due to a large network chain that they follow.

“Though the operations of banks will not be stopped during the upgradation period, people may face delays in the service” Yadav further added.

Cyber experts warned that consistently upgrading one's systems is the only solution against any possible cyber attack in the long term.

“We have developed a security system to fight against the virus. In the next two days, the software systems will be equipped with the security system which will prevent them of getting harmed in any situation” said an expert in a Noida company.

P K Singh, senior manager of Vijaya Bank in Noida, said: “We have received directions from RBI and are adhering to it. The systems have been advised to remain shut until they get upgraded. We are also going through the training programs organised by the district headquarters to understand things better”.

The process of upgradation of computers has resulted in various government systems not functioning, including land registration in tehsils