Over 48,000 Attempted WannaCry Ransomware Attacks in India

WannaCry ransomware has hit Windows PCs across the globe, and India is on that list.

Ransomware attacks have been the talk of town this week. Image used for representational purposes. (Photo: iStock)

A Pune-based cyber security firm on Tuesday said it detected over 48,000 attempts at ransomware attacks in India, with West Bengal witnessing the most incidents.

Quick Heal Technologies “detected over 48,000 MS-17- 010 Shadow Broker exploit hits responsible for the WannaCry ransomware outbreak in India.”

The company said 60 percent of the attempts by the malicious WannaCry ransomware were targeted at enterprises, while 40 percent were on individual customers.

It said there have been over 700 distress calls by customers in the last few days following the discovery of the attacks, which has impacted 150 countries globally.

The top five cities impacted by the WannaCry ransomware are Kolkata, Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Pune and Mumbai, while the top top five states with maximum detections are West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, NCR (Delhi), and Odisha, it said.

The company claimed it "successfully detected" the ransomware activity and "cleaned the malicious file responsible for file encryption from all the attacked systems".

Indian computer systems have largely escaped the global ransomware attack as the government and companies installed security patches to gain the upper hand against the first wave of the unrivalled cyber attack.

Over two lakh computers in at least 150 countries are said to have been infected, according to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency. In India, only a few isolated incidents in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat were reported.