A ransomware attack ripped through computers around the world over the weekend, affecting healthcare, public transport, law enforcement, businesses, and individuals globally. Named 'WannaCry', the attack encrypted the contents of thousands of computers and demanded a ransom for recovering the files. The attack was first reported when critical systems of Britain's National Healthcare System (NHS) were frozen by the program, forcing hospitals to refuse patients and significantly disrupting their operations. Governments and businesses around the world were later revealed to be affected as well, with the ransomware taking advantage of a vulnerability in several Windows machines. WannaCry was deployed using technology that was leaked when a giant trove of confidential NSA documents was made public last month. Impact on India: Unclear, but CERT-in plans webinar While visualizations show that multiple Indian systems have been hit by the attack, only the Andhra Pradesh police has so far disclosed that some of its computers were hit. The Indian government's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) has issued an alert and, in a late night email, announced an informational webcast about WannaCry scheduled at 11am today. Since the attack started only after Asian business hours on Friday, many more instances of WannaCry attacks in India may be reported once government officials and businesses turn their computers back on today for the first time after the weekend. "We will only know the real magnitude of the damage once offices re-open on Monday and systems are turned on," CERT-in's director general Gulshan Rai warned. MediaNama has reached out to a significant cross-section…
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