WannaCry ransomware: Malicious Virus wreaks havoc as systems in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, AP secretariat under attack

The “WannaCry” ransomware cyber attack which has wreaked havoc across the security networks of millions of computers worldwide, has severely impacted computer systems in establishments across India too. The dreaded virus which has rapidly spread its clutches across the global cyberspace over the last week has left the best of tech-experts found wanting to find a solution to the menace. 

The computer systems at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), one of the richest Hindu shrines in the world were the latest casualty of this dreaded virus attack, which has made the safety IT networks look vulnerable.

The ransomware virus breached through the security of 30 computers at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams on Wednesday. TTD officials said that 30 systems, which were running on old version of operating system, were affected.

According to official sources, as many as 30 computer systems were found to be affected by the virus. “However, all these systems belong to the administration wing of TTD and were attended to by the engineers of the IT department immediately,” TTD official spokesman T Ravi told Hindustan Times.

He said there was no impact on the hardware or software related to the pilgrim services of the TTD, including online booking for darshan, accommodation, prasadam and offerings to the Lord. When IT wing noticed WannaCry in some computers, it immediately disconnected the systems. Officials said that they have taken all the measures including disabling the virus, which breaks the firewall and corrupts the systems."We have also loaded patches released by Microsoft for further protection of all the systems as advisories from agencies have said that even computers with the latest software may be affected," said officials.

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There were further reports that at least 20 computer systems in Andhra Pradesh secretariat in Amaravati were affected by ransomware attack. Blocks 4 and 5, mostly in the Revenue department, were hit by the virus on Wednesday.

More than 48,000 attempts of ransomware cyber attack were witnessed in India, with West Bengal being the most hit by WannaCry, a cyber-security firm has said.

Quick Heal Technologies has "detected over 48,000 MS-17-010 Shadow Broker exploit hits responsible for 'WannaCry ransomware' outbreak in India", the Pune-based company said in a statement.

Zomato on Thursday admitted to a major security breach, where more than 17 million user records were stolen from its database. While disclosing the attack in a blog post, the company assured users that all payment data is stored separately from the stolen data, and that no payment information or credit card data has been stolen.

"Our observation is that the attack is not focused towards any particular industry but it is widely spread across industries especially those organisations which are online and connected," Quick Heal Technologies' managing director Sanjay Katkar said.

60 per cent attempts of ransomware were targeted at enterprises, while 40 per cent on individual customers, the company said.
Top five cities hit by WannaCry ransomware are Kolkata followed by Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Pune and Mumbai, while the top five states with maximum detections are West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, NCR (Delhi), and Odisha, it said.

According to the company, it "successfully detected" the ransomware activity and "cleaned the malicious file responsible for file encryption from all the attacked systems".

Also Read: Ransomware: Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai among top 5 cities hit by WannaCry; more than 48,000 attempts in India, says Quick Heal