Kolkata: With reports of more computers in the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Corporation Ltd’s (WBSEDCL) offices in the districts falling victim to “WannaCry” virus attack, the state government on Tuesday has decided to circulate guidelines for the prevention of such attacks in the future.
State chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee and home secretary Moloy De held an emergency meeting with the top brass of the police and cyber experts at the state secreteriat Nabanna on Tuesday. CID ADG Rajesh Kumar and some officers of the CID cyber department were also present.
“Retrieving data from the machines that have been affected is not possible. Hence, we have decided to update the software in all our machines. The experts have suggested installing the latest Windows 10 version for preventing further attacks. We will soon come up with a guideline,” an official of the IT department present in the meeting said.
It was further decided that the state would regularly seek opinions from cyber experts who would monitor the situation from time to time.
The state government will also be monitoring the activities of the Centre in this regard as many other states have also been hit by WannaCry ransomware.
On Tuesday, reports of the WBSEDCL’s units at some places like Nalhati, Rampurhat, Suri and Bolpur were also recieved.
A top official of the WBSEDCL, however, claimed that all the attacks were actually on Friday and Saturday. WBSEDCL chairperson Rajesh Pandey has issued guidelines to all its offices in the state for installing anti-virus kit.
“Majority of the machines that have been affected did not have the anti-virus kit pertaining to the Windows 7 version. All the machines will be updated with the anti-virus patch by Wednesday,” the official said. The municipal commissioner, on behalf of the Kolkata Muncipal Corporation, issued do’s and dont’s as a precautionary measure on Tuesday to combat such attacks. All concerned were instructed to use the KMC network only.
“They have been directed not to open any mail or link from an unknown source, not to install or download any unknown application, not to connect mobile phones to Kolkata Muncipal Corporation computers and not to use USB modems for Internet access and external storage devices like pen drives and external hard disks in Kolkata Muncipal Corporation PCs,” mayor Sovan Chatterjee said.
