BMC systems free from WannaCry cyber-attack

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claims that it has not been affected by the recent global cyber-attack using the ransomware virus WannaCry.

Earlier this week, the attack affected systems both private and government companies, hospitals, banks and even the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC).

The BMC admitted that they do not have any protection against the virus but were spared as it affects only the Windows Operating System (OS). The entire system of the civic body uses Linux OS with a third party cloudbased server. BMC had shut its online services on Monday for six hours as a precautionary measure.

“We have a lot of confidential data and we are not completely sure about the exact total number of computers that we have. We are a bit relieved as the virus did not affect Linux OS,” a senior official from IT department of BMC said.

The IT department is still skeptical about the virus and has taken certain precautions to protect the systems. “This virus or any other virus may affect the systems in future as none of us can give any assurance when it comes to cyber-attack. Our main aim is to make sure that the large amount of data we have is not lost. So, we have anti-virus software installed in every system,” the official said.

BMC’s Disaster Management Department which oversees all disasters and crucial events of the city has also taken up some more security measures. A senior civic official said, “We are not allowing any use of USBs or pen drives into any of our system. Our systems contain information which cannot be lost or leaked at any cost, therefore, we are taking all necessary precautions that we can.”

The WannaCry attack affected files in about 25 computers at KDMC and all the systems were working offline. Various banks had to shut the Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) as a preventive measure and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked the banks to update the software systems at their ATMs with a security patch released by Microsoft.