Yesterday the world was severely attacked by cyber criminals. The toll was massive. Right from hospitals to airports, telecom to computer systems of around 100 countries suffered badly. And all this happened without any symptoms.
As per news reports, 102 computer systems of Andhra Pradesh police were hacked. The malware reportedly halted production at a Nissan-Renault Alliance plant on the outskirts of Chennai, but the company did not comment on the issue.
According to a TOI news report, this cyber attack was carried out using a malware called Wanna Decryptor or WannaCry. This is a "ransomware", a digital extortion system that locks down systems by encrypting the data on it, only to decrypt and release it back for a ransom amount.
Indian ATMs run on Windows XP, which has been discontinued by Microsoft long back. And when this kind of attack happens there is no return as even Microsoft has no support available.
Michael Gillespie, who runs ID Ransomware, a free website that helps victims of ransomware identify malware and work around encrypted data, said he got an unusually high number of submissions from India since Friday which he diagnosed as WannaCry ."I've received about 24 submissions since yesterday that were identified as WannaCryptor and came from IPs based in India. I'd say that's pretty low compared to other countries, but pretty high for submissions from India," he told TOI over email, pointing out that his stats only cover those who upload to the website and are not indicative of the total number of victims.
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