Numerous ATMs Shut Across The Country To Guard Against ‘WannaCry’

The RBI has asked banks to follow the instructions of government organisation CERT-In on the ‘ransomware’ virus.

ATMs running on old Windows operating system might be prone to attack. (Photo: Reuters)

As part of precautionary measures, banks did not operate some ATMs running on old software in view of threat from ransomware 'WannaCry'.

The RBI has asked Indian banks to follow the instructions of government organisation CERT-In on ‘ransomware’, which has impacted various IT networks in over 94 countries.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has come out with a list of dos and don’ts and webcast on how to protect networks from the global ‘ransomware’ cyber attack.

Most automated teller machines (ATMs) were running fine, there could be some which may not have updated Microsoft's Windows Operating Systems, sources said.

Such ATMs could be prone to attack; therefore as a precautionary measure, banks running such ATMs refrained from feeding cash, sources added.

However, there was no official information in this regard from the RBI in this connection till late evening.

There are a total of 2.2 lakh ATMs in India, of which few may be running on old Windows XP.

In a separate malware attack last year, 3.2 lakh debit cards were compromised in the country. Data of the users who transacted from ATM machines of Hitachi were compromised during three months of May, June and July last year. The Hitachi ATMs deployed by many White Label ATM players and Yes Bank were impacted by the malware.

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman