India relatively unscathed, but stays on high alert

Indian computer systems largely escaped a global ransomware attack as the government and companies installed security patches to gain an upper hand against the first wave of an unrivalled global cyber attack.

Over two lakh computers in at least 150 countries are said to have been infected, according to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency. In India, only a few isolated incidents in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were reported.

National Informatics Centre, which manages government websites, and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing installed security patches issued by Microsoft to immunise their Windows systems.

Also, guidelines were issued to enable large IT networks to tackle the threat.

"There is no major impact in India, unlike other countries. We are keeping a close watch. As per the information received so far, there have been isolated incidents in limited areas in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh," Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

He said a cyber coordination centre will start operating from next month to take precautions against such attacks.

India's cyber security unit CERT-In said it has received formal reports of just five "incidents" across locations like Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

"It is nothing major, but we are still watching. The next couple of days, we will be on alert on this," Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), director general, Sanjay Bahl said.

India 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.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked banks to follow the instructions issued by CERT-In to prevent the attack. A few ATMs running on old Microsoft Operating System remained non-operational as part of precautionary measures.

CERT-In has issued a list of dos and don'ts and webcast on how to protect networks from the global ransomware attack.