The country's cyber security agency has alerted Internet users against damaging activities of a strong and globally active ransomware virus named'Wannacry' that critically infects work stations and locks them remotely.
A red-coloured 'critical alert' has been issued by the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian Internet domain.
"It has been reported that a new ransomware named as Wannacry is spreading widely. Wannacry encrypts the files on infected Windows systems. This ransomware spreads by using a vulnerability in implementations of server message block (SMB) in Windows systems.
It said the ransomware called 'WannaCry' or 'WannaCrypt' encrypts the computer's hard disk drive and then spreads laterally between computers on the same local area network (LAN).
A huge extortion cyber-attack had hit dozens of nations yesterday, holding computer data for ransom at hospitals, telecommunications firms and other companies. A cyber ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid through the online medium.
The ransomware virus is such lethal and smart that "it also drops a file named '!Please Read Me!.txt' which contains the text explaining what has happened (to the computer) and how to pay the ransom."
The CERT-In has suggested some anti-ransonware measures:
- Check regularly for the integrity of the information stored in the databases.
- Regularly check the contents of backup files of databases for any unauthorised encrypted contents of data records..
- Do not open attachments in unsolicited emails even if they come from people in your contact list .
- Never click on a URL contained in an unsolicited email, even if the link seems benign.
"Report such instances of fraud to CERT-In and law enforcement agencies," it said.
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