Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) on Thursday issued an alert to all the States and the Union Territories (UTs) about a possible cyber attack from a suspected group from Indonesia allegedly targeting 12,000 government websites across the country, top sources said.
Ministry of Home Affairs’ I4C wing alerted the States and the UTs following their findings about the Indonesian cyber attack group hatching a conspiracy to implement their ill intentions. The inputs shared with the States and the UTs clearly mentions a potential attack on government-run websites whether it is under state governments and the Central government.
Concerned officials have been asked to take necessary preventive measures to thwart the cyber attack which is expected soon.
In November last year, hackers from China managed a ransomware attack on Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) servers. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) then said that five physical servers were infiltrated by hackers from China.
The data in the five servers was successfully retrieved but the MoHF had said the damage could have been far worse.
Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has also said that the ransomware attack on the servers of AIIMS Delhi was a conspiracy and that it was planned by forces that were pretty significant.
In a ransomware attack, cybercriminals lock access to data or a device and promise to unlock it after they are paid the desired ransom.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi allegedly faced a cyber attack on November 23, paralysing its servers. A case of extortion and cyber terrorism was registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police on November 25.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Delhi cybercrime special cell, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Forensic Sciences University, National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre and among others which are investigating the cyber attack.