Mysuru: Amidst reports that India is among the worst affected countries from the ‘Wanna Cry ransomware’ attack, several ATMs in city were closed as a preventive measure against the cyber attack. However, bank officials have denied that the ATMs have been closed due to cyber attack. Not taking the threats lightly, banks are on high alert and taken measures to prevent hacking.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Lead Bank Manager K.N. Shivalingaiah said that in Mysuru city there are over 520 ATMs and there are over 733 ATMs in the district including the ones in city. “These ATMs have been closed due to other reasons like want of cash. There have been mass withdrawals before the weekend started and soon after the cyber attack news spread,” he said.

Clarifying that the RBI has not issued any direction to close ATMs, Shivalingaiah said that they have no information about the closure due to cyber threat. “I can say that ATMs in Mysuru have not been closed following the threat,” he said.

It may be recalled here that Union Home Ministry sources stated yesterday that some ATMs all over the country have been closed following concerns against the virus attack.

Banks on alert

Some banks have started distributing Microsoft patches to their branches to guard their systems, many of which run on outdated software. “Anti-ransomware software has been enabled and all e-mails, both incoming and outgoing, are blocked for now,” a bank official said. Banks even advised employees not to connect any external devices to the systems.

Government websites

The State Government, on its part, has blocked some of its websites. As the scare is big, the e-Governance Department has shut several government websites that had been given direct IP access or has temporarily closed some access to certain sites till the “patching” is completed to prevent attacks.

The Mysuru district administration and the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) officials have said that there was no threat to their websites. Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep said that there would be no impact on Mysuru as the websites are maintained in Bengaluru.

“The State Data Centre and several publicly accessed websites are safe as the e-Governance Department has taken all precautionary measures against an attack,” the DC said. MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha said that the MCC will not be affected as there are no online services.

3 Mysuru companies were victims

An IT company, a five-star hotel and a tractor dealer in Mysuru had become unsuspecting victims of a similar cyber attack in 2016. Cases were booked by the star hotel (Devaraja Police Station), IT Company (Jayalakshmipuram Police Station) and the tractor dealer (Vijayanagar Police Station) and the investigation was handed over to the CID Cyber Cell located on the first floor of Jayalakshmipuram Police Station.

Speaking to SOM, H.S. Renukaradhya, inspector, Cyber Crime Wing said that the three institutions lost good amount of data when the attack took place last year. “Their computers, networks and data storage facilities froze one day and the hackers later sent messages to the firms saying that they could offer a decryption key on payment of ransom in bitcoins,” he said.

While the hotel management refused to pay, the IT Company paid two bitcoins and only a part of data was released by the hackers, Renukaradhya said. “Each bitcoin is now worth over Rs. 1.2 lakh and its cost was less in 2016. The companies somehow managed to retrieve the data later.

“There are several websites dealing in bitcoins and it is almost impossible to trace the recipient of bitcoins. The malware infection usually happens through email attachments,” he said.