Ransomware attack: Over 20 systems affected in Kerala's railway office

Authorities claim there has been no loss of data as they had back up

A day after the computers of four village panchayats in Kerala were hit, 23 computers of the Railway Division office in Palakkad came under cyber attack on Tuesday.

A statement issued by the railway authorities here said that 23 out of the 500 computers were affected by the ransomware cyber attack. However, it said the data on the affected computers had back up and were stored in printed files and hence there was no loss of data.

"The cyber attack was noticed on 23 computers which flashed the message of asking money to be paid in bitcoins, or warned the data would be lost forever. Since all the affected computers contained document files pertaining to the employees, that have backed up files, the data loss is only temporary," said the statement.

It said the railways uses a different system for ticketing and other passenger related issues and cargo movements, which have not been affected at all.