Nearly 48,000 WannaCry ransomware attack attempts in India

16 May 2017

1

Nearly 48,000 attempts of WannaCry ransomware were detected in India, with the maximum reported attempts in Kolkata followed by by Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Pune and Mumbai.

The top five states with maximum detections were West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, NCR (Delhi) and Odisha. 60 per cent attempts were targeted towards enterprises and 40 per cent towards individuals.

''This ransomware outbreak has brought to fore the importance of robust cybersecurity solutions for individuals and businesses alike. Cybercriminals are not discriminating while attacking and spreading malware. India is getting hit hard by such attacks as India has a large number of Windows users who do nothave proper security patches applied and rely on inadequate internet security,'' Sanjay Katkar, MD & CTO, Quick Heal Technologies Limited, said.

''Our observation is that the attack was not focused towards any particular industry but it was widely spread across industries, especially those organisations that are online and connected. In the last few days, we have received distress calls from customers belonging to verticals like education, banking, financial, manufacturing, healthcare and even from few services sectors,'' he added.

Quick Heal said it had detected more than 48,000 MS-17-010 Shadow Broker exploit hits responsible for WannaCry ransomware outbreak in India.

A dump of MS-17-010 Windows OS vulnerability was made public by the notorious Shadow Broker group on April 14, 2017. This vulnerability affects most desktop and server editions of Microsoft Windows.

''We received more than 700 distressed calls – from industrial verticals such as education, banking, financial, manufacturing, healthcare and services sectors - regarding the spread of this ransomware,'' he added.

The WannaCry ransomware outbreak has impacted many organisations and networks across 150 countries.

Soon after the ransomware attack was spotted, Quick Heal Security Labs issued an advisory informing customer on ways to reduce the risk of infection by WannaCry Ransomware.

The company recommended that all Microsoft patch updates are applied for vulnerabilities used by this ransomware. Users were also advised to avoid clicking on links and opening attachment in emails from unknown and suspicious sources. Quick Heal has also organised a webinar to educate businesses on 17 May at 4 pm on how to protect themselves from the WannaCry Ransomware on Wednesday, .

Earlier this month, Quick Heal Security Labs detected 10 new ransomware families in the first quarter itself. The report had predicted the evolution of ransomware and increase in ransomware attacks in the coming quarters

Business History Videos

History of hovercraft Part 3...

Today I shall talk a bit more about the military plans for ...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of hovercraft Part 2...

In this episode of our history of hovercraft, we shall exam...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Hovercraft Part 1...

If you’ve been a James Bond movie fan, you may recall seein...

By Kiron Kasbekar | Presenter: Kiron Kasbekar

History of Trams in India | ...

The video I am presenting to you is based on a script writt...

By Aniket Gupta | Presenter: Sheetal Gaikwad

view more