WannaCry A Wake-Up Call For India, McAfee Says
The attack could have gone ‘bad’ but quick reaction helped users across verticals.
WannaCry, a ransomware attack that has affected more than 150 countries globally, had a muted impact on India, Anand Ramamoorthy, managing director-South Asia at antivirus company McAfee, told BloombergQuint in an interview.
“We have had sporadic impacts in different customer sites across India, mostly smaller note count and nothing substantial so far. If you would look at the nature of attack, the ability of the attack to become extremely widespread, I would call India minimally impacted so far,” he said.
He said barring isolated attacks, there have been no reports of anyone getting seriously compromised from a business standpoint.
WannaCry, which hit computers globally last Friday, has so far impacted roughly 3.5 lakh systems, he added. Ramamoorthy, however, warned that the attack could have gone ‘bad,’ but said the ability to quickly react helped users across verticals to contain its impact.
Also Read : India One Of The Worst Affected By WannaCry, Says QuickHeal Co-Founder
While the attack has been contained for now, India is the third largest country affected by the malware after Russia and Ukraine, according to a report by Kaspersky Lab. Ramamoorthy added that even though the users are impacted there could be a way out without paying the ransom.
It depends on the extent of the impact, what got impacted in terms of file system, how much of transmission on the network has happened. Based on our customer profile ransom implication has been minimal.Anand Ramamoorthy, MD (South Asia), McAfee
A Wake Up Call ?
India approved its cybersecurity policy in May 2013. The policy had proposed to set up different bodies to deal with various levels of threats, along with a national nodal agency, to coordinate all matters related to cyber security.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in February this year had said it will form an inter-disciplinary standing committee on cyber security, two months after the banking system was hit by one of its largest security breaches with debit cards.
The committee will review threats integral in existing and emerging technology, study adoption of various security standards and protocols, interface with stakeholders and suggest possible policy interventions to cyber security preparedness of the banking system.
Calling Cyber security policy, a job half done, Ramamoorthy said it is a step in the right direction for a secure digital India. “If we orchestrate the right policy, you are setting the cornerstore for how things are going to be deployed implemented and cracked,” he said.
Also Read : India Issues Preventive Guidelines As WannaCry Ransomware Threat Grips 150 Countries
Ramamoorthy said that Computer Emergency Response (CERT) team and RBI have been very prescriptive with respect to what to do be done in case of such threats and the governments and banks are better prepared to counter threats now.
“The attack is however a wake up a call for the country,” he added. “One cannot take solace in all the tools you have and it is always going to be a catchup game.”