Global ransomware affects WBSEDCL; operations not affected, say officials

The computer systems at the offices of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL) in West Midnapore on Monday came under the attack of WannaCry, a crypto ransomware.

It was learnt that the bug has been detected at its four offices in Belda, Datan, Keshiyari and Narayangarh affecting the computers at these blocks. There is a risk of witnessing large number of computer systems getting affected as this ransomeware can affect other computers in any network.

WBSEDCL, however, maintained that the services remained unaffected from the global ransomware attack that has put the cyber security across the world in jeopardy. A senior official of the WBSEDCL said that it would have no impact in the customer services and normal functions will remain unaffected. He assured that there is no reason to panic as the data are all safe.

A cyber expert has said that the WanaCrypt bug encrypts data on a computer within few seconds displaying a message asking the computer user to pay a ransom to restore the service. It was learnt that on Monday morning when the employees started the systems of the electricity offices in these four sub-divisions, they found a message popping up on the screens of the computers that asks for a ransom of USD 300 in Bitcoins to restore access to the computer.

The expert said that WannaCry has so far affected over 100 countries including India and it is the biggest ransomware attack in the world. There is a threat that if the payment is not done within seven days, the files that were already locked would be deleted, the cyber expert maintained.

"If the data is not properly backed up and an anti-virus not installed in the computer, then there is a possibility that the data cannot be restored. It is not known who is behind the cyber attack. It is believed that the hackers are using the 'Eternal Blue Hacking Weapon'", a cyber expert said.

Biswarup Mukehrjee, Additional General Manager (Corp. Communications), WBSEDCL said: "Some of the systems of our Customer Care Centres were initially attacked which had no impact on our overall business operations."

"Customer data is fully protected and there is no impact on day-to-day functioning of the company. Customer services including bill collection has been normal across all Customer Care Centres of WBSEDCL throughout the state," Mukherjee further maintained.