Cyberattack on JKPDD servers, threat contained: Official

The power development department of Jammu and Kashmir was targetted in a cyberattack. The threat, however, has been contained and billing and payment data of consumers is secure.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): A cyberattack was launched on the servers of the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (JKPDD) but the threat has been contained, an official said on Friday.

A cyber threat was detected at 4:42 AM on June 24 on four (04) servers out of 103 servers installed across JKPDD at Data Center (DC) and Disaster Recovery Center (DRC), Chief Engineer, Distribution, Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL), who is a nodal officer RAPDRP Part-A IT of JKPDD, said here.

He said the servers and out location hardware installed across 60 billing sub-division offices and 40 other offices were immediately isolated from intranet on JKPDD WAN and internet.

A preliminary scan was initiated on database servers to assess the intrusion of malware, the official said.

He said the JKPDD is currently in the process of conducting a deep scan of all servers installed at DC and DRC and 542 other workstations across locations to assess the malware intrusion in order to avoid any further occurrence of such incidents.

The threat has been contained and billing and payment data of consumers is secure. Since all bills for previous month (May 2020 payable in June 2020) stand generated and distributed, consumers are requested to pay the same at J-K Bank counters and through JK Bank Mpay application in order to avoid late payment surcharge, he said.

The official said the JKPDD is currently employing best resources available in the present COVID-19 situation to restore the system to the normal at an earliest.

The data centre is otherwise robust and shall get fully operational soon with all SOPs/requisite firewall in place, he added.

PTI