Major Uttarakhand govt websites impacted by malware attack restored

The websites of major government departments in Uttarakhand which were temporarily closed due to a malware attack in the 'State Data Center' were restored on Sunday.

Nitika Khandelwal, Director of Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA), said that major websites like 'Apni Sarkar', 'E-Office', 'E-Ravanna portal and Chardham registration have been restored while the CM Helpline and 'State Portal' were restored on Saturday.

The cyber attack took place on Wednesday, on a government holiday. Due to the shutdown of the online system, some of the work was done manually. Other works including verification of ration card holders were closed.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a high-level meeting reviewing the recent malware attack that temporarily closed down the state's data centre.

Taking stock of the situation, he directed the officials to complete the scanning of the state's data centre and restore all the important websites and online services by Monday.

Khandelwal said that there was no case of data loss in the cyber attack.

He said that out of about 2,034 calls in the CM Helpline in the last two days, 1,879 have been returned and more than 600 complaints have also been registered.

Malware is a type of computer virus used to steal data.

During the meeting with the chief minister, State Information Technology Secretary Nitesh Jha said that out of 1,378 machines, 11 were affected by malware. The data centre has been scanned several times in the last two days. Many websites, including e-office and CM helpline, have been restored.

Dhami said that with the help of the best agencies of the Government of India working in the field of Information Technology, the security system of the State Data Centre should be improvised.

Dhami also directed the officials to conduct a security audit of the 'State Data Centre' and the website.

He asked the officials to set up a Disaster Recovery Centre for the security of online forums and retrieval of online data related to various departments.

He directed the officials to review the company doing technical work in the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) and said that if any kind of negligence is found, action should be taken against the company.

Dhami asked the ITDA to ensure that the 'anti-virus system' is updated in every government office so that such incidents can be avoided.