Thariode panchayat computers hit

Four computers using Windows 7 come under attack

A few computers of the Thariode grama panchayat office in Wayanad district have been affected by the global ransomware cyberattack.

When officials of the panchayat office opened the devices on Monday morning, it was found that four of the 14 computers in the office were affected, Reena Surendran, panchayat president, told The Hindu .

The ransomware demanded payment of $300 worth of cryptocurrency bitcoin to retrieve the files. The demand was later raised to $600.

Translations of the ransom message in 28 languages were included, Ms. Reena said.

“The affected computers had the Windows 7 operating system and the remaining ones had Windows XP. The attack has not affected the functioning of the grama panchayat as all the documents have been saved in a server and we have used Widows XP devices for the purpose,” she said.

Rajpal Meena, Superintendent of Police, Wayanad, said the malware spread through email. Ransomware was a type of malware that encrypted a user’s data, then demanded payment for unlocking it.

Mr. Meena said cyber experts of the Police Department were trying to analyse the malware used for the purpose and they suspected that the hackers had used a piece of malicious software called Wana Cryptor 2.0 or Wanna Cry that exploited a vulnerability in Windows.