Ransomware: Experts suggest extra security layer

Hyderabad: At a time when ransomware is creating tremors across the global industry, the government departments and other organisations that use pirated software are most vulnerable to cyber attacks.“So far, there are no reports of ransomware attack on the state government departments or any other organisation in Telangana. This doesn’t mean that we’re fully secured,” according to the Telangana IT Association (TITA), which is in the process of preparing a draft on dos and don’ts. TITA will submit its report to the government in a day or two.

Highlights:

• Pirated software prone to cyber attacks
• Hospitals, banks gear up for likely attack today

This assumes importance in the wake of a fresh havoc expected on Monday as ransomware is threatening to hit back. On the other side of the coin, the AP Police Department was attacked by hackers on Saturday.Globally, government departments, business firms and industry are bracing for Monday as cyber attack threat lingers mostly on Asia.

“We need to have an additional layer, including a firewall for safeguarding our data and systems. When we worked on digital literacy, we observed that most of the government departments were using pirated software. For instance, the Police department or other departments, which have digital records may be at more risk considering the present situation,” Sundeep Kumar Makthala, Founder & Global President, TITA told The Hans India.

Several government departments, including ACP office from Karimnagar and Madhapur police have approached TITA to suggest safety measures to protect data from malware attack. “We’re suggesting ways and measures at two levels – organisation and individual—on protecting from ransomware,” adds Makthtala.Country’s cyber security unit Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is yet to receive a formal intimation of any major attacks.

CERT-In has reached out to all government agencies and public utilities to stay alert. “There have been media reports of some systems of Andhra Pradesh Police being affected. The Andhra Pradesh systems were isolated PCs and not connected to larger networks,” says Sanjay Bahl, Director General at CERT-In.

Back home, cyber security cell at TITA is working on safeguarding government departments, organisations and IT industry from possible cyber attacks. “Microsoft on Saturday released Win32/WannaCrypt patch and this can be accessed by updating Windows. Mostly client operating systems infected by ransomware. However, Windows Server 2003 was also hit, but 2008 and above versions not affected. Users can install MS17-010 as early as possible,” suggests Makthala.

Makthala further alerts users not to log in at any public wi-fi and not to click on any suspicious link. Generally, ransomware is sent via email, or website and forms. When a user clicks on it, it’ll get into Master Boot Record (MBR) and encrypt entire data.

IT security staff are busy these two days to patch computers and restore infected ones, amid fears that the ransomware worm that stopped car factories, hospitals, shops and schools could wreak fresh havoc on Monday when employees log back on.

The spread of ransomware, after locking up over 100,000 computers globally, seems to be slowed down. But this respite may not continue for long, alert experts. Meanwhile, global IT majors including Microsoft released patches to fix a vulnerability that allowed the worm to spread across networks.

By Sreenivasa Rao Dasari