'WannaCry' attacks reported from Bengal districts

With reports that some computers in government offices in the districts have been infected by ransomware virus 'WannaCry', the West Bengal government today in an advisory asked concerned IT officials to strictly follow the guidelines issued by the Centre to steer clear of the attack.
Principal Secretary, IT and Electronics Department & OSD Dr Krishna Gupta said that soon he would hold a meeting with the concerned departments regarding how to counter the threat.
Officers from the state police cyber crime section as well as their Kolkata Police counterparts will be present in the meeting.
There were reports that the virus had infected around 10 standalone computers in the offices of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company in three blocks - Belda, Datan and Narayangarh in West Midnapore district, state power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay confirmed.

"We have received reports about virus attacks from the districts. But this has not affected our daily operations like receiving payments and complaints as the central servers remained unaffected. We have asked our IT experts to run a check and solve this problem," Chattopadhyay said.
Reports of computers affected by 'WannaCry' were also received from Balurghat in Dakshin Dinajpur and Chaitanyapur in East Medinipur district, Chairman & M D State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. Rajesh Pandey said.

"So far it has not succeeded in impacting our commercial operations. Those computers affected by the virus were mainly used to download files, checking mails. We are issuing SOP to better out operations countering this threat," Pandey said.

The cyber security arm of the central government has asked banks, stock exchanges, and other vital institutions to safeguard their systems against Ransomware which has infected thousands of systems globally and may escalate further.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.
The country is on high alert, monitoring critical networks across sectors like banking, telecom, power and aviation to ensure that systems are protected against the attack that has claimed victims in more than 150 countries over the weekend.