Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, May 3
Hackers struck the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state power utilities demanding ransom for release of date that they coded with a password. All computers went down after the ransomware attack for which the hackers demanded six Bitcoins (nearly Rs 20 lakh) in ransom to give description key to restore the sites, police said on Friday.
T Srinivas, Director (Projects and IT), Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL), said the sites had been restored a probe had been initiated.
“They demanded six Bitcoins. Normally the attackers leave a link for paying ransom. In this case the websites were restored to normalcy even before they sent the link. We are investigating.”
Telangana authorities said the website was hacked on April 29 and its web services like online payments were affected. The cyber crime police have registered a case under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
The southern and northern power distribution companies of Telangana at Hyderabad and Warangal and southern and eastern power distribution companies of Andhra Pradesh at Tirupati and Visakhapatnam took the hit.
Police said the ransom ware attacks originated from Central Europe and some African nations. The websites and systems are managed by TCS and experts from the IT giant were flown in to restore them.
K Vijayanand, Chairman of Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited, said there was no impact on the billing activities.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2Wo6YRg
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: