Cyberattack: J&K power department becomes ransomware's first target

Days after experts warned of cyberattacks, the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (PDD) has become the first victim after four of its database servers got infected with ransomware. According to Chief Engineer PDD Ajaz Dar, four database servers at the department's data centre in Srinagar were found infected with ransomware.

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (PDD) became the first victim of a cyber attack after four database servers got infected with ransomware, officials said.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Chief Engineer PDD Ajaz Dar said, "At 4:45 am yesterday (Wednesday) four database servers at the department's data centre in Srinagar were found infected with ransomware. We raised the complaint with the Cyber Crime police and followed which investigation was started."

He said, "Following the instructions of the Cyber police we have isolated all infected servers. Currently, we have 55 servers at the data centre out of which four are under siege. Meanwhile, we have also called in our IT experts for internal audit. This type of attack is called Ransomware, and the hacker encrypts all the data in the servers and locks it due to which the user fails to access it."

According to the official, the intensity of the attack is being ascertained by the police who had visited the premises on Thursday.

While assuring that customer data is safe, he said, "The billing cycle for this month was already generated and would not be affected by this attack. However, consumers have to pay bills through offline mode in banks, online payments are not possible right now."

Meanwhile, the Cyber Crime police have neither confirmed nor denied the Chinese hackers role in the attack.

"This is a ransomware attack which is mostly done for online frauds. I can't confirm the involvement of Chinese hackers but for sure intentions were not good. In these kinds of attacks, a hacker uses email for phishing important information from the system to be used against the owner," a senior police official of Cyber cell told ETV Bharat.

He said, "For now we have registered an FIR in the case and further investigations are currently underway. This is the first time any government department in Jammu and Kashmir is being targeted by hackers. We have also issued guidelines to the department regarding the same."

Earlier, Maharashtra police had reported an upsurge in cyber attacks from China, with over 40,000 attempts by Hackers based in Chengdu region.

Cautioning the internet users about the recent attempts by hackers, police officials based in Maharashtra said that users should be careful about sudden phishing attempts and should avail cybersecurity audits of their IT systems.