Telangana govt on high alert

Lurking threat of ransomware

​Hyderabad: Though there has been no problem of any kind of attack due to ransomware in the Secretariat, the IT wings of all departments have been put on high alert and IT experts are closely monitoring the status of the functioning of the computers.

A high-level team, led by IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, has been monitoring round the clock the status of the government-run websites and computers installed in all departments from the Secretariat to the village-level offices.

The government also roped in an expert counter-hacking team to update antivirus software on all systems and check regularly whether any database has been corrupted and to ensure that the information stored in the databases was well protected.

“The special teams are regularly monitoring the contents of backup files of databases and are verifying whether any unauthorized encrypted contents or external elements including malicious scripts had encroached,” a senior official said, adding that the IT wing is closely reviewing the safety and security of every official website and data in coordination with NIC (National Informatics Centre) .

The government is also in touch with other stakeholders in the government system, including RBI, and UIDAI for protection of digital payment ecosystem. On the advice of the experts, the government is ascertaining the safety of old operating systems which are more prone to hacking, a senior official said, adding that the systems will be updated to avoid the threat of hacking. Reports say that over two lakh systems could have been infected by the malicious software globally.

The IT wing has been receiving advisories from the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) from time to time and sharing the list of do’s and don’ts with the Central and state governments.