Ransomware sparks ATM upgrades

A number of ATMs went out of service across the country as banks continued upgrading their software and creating firewalls on their systems to prevent data breaches from viruses like the WannaCry ransomware attack. But the disruption in services at the ATMs created a panic among the public on the safety about their money.

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) spokesperson said, "RBI has not asked banks to shut down ATMs and that only a cyber-security advisory has been issued to banks on May 13 to upgrade their systems."

Messages were also being circulated on social media saying that RBI has advised the banks to shut ATMs for two days, however, banks denied receiving any such advisory.

The banks are now patching their software to fix any cybersecurity lapses. Microsoft had launched a patch a month back which is basically a system upgrade to fight off bugs.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State Bank of India told DNA Money, "Patching is going on regardless of ransomware. It is regular maintenance activity. There is a general advisory from RBI given before this ransomware attack to do patching as required. ATMs could be down for other reasons."

Banks as a matter of precaution need to inform RBI about any security breaches in their systems, failing which RBI will impose heavy penalties on banks for not sharing the information on time and plugging the holes in a few hours' time.

There are 2.2 lakh ATMs in India, of which few may be running on old Windows XP, which is an older version of the software, which may be insulating these machines from the malware.

A senior banker said all the ATMs running on the old Windows XP system are absolutely safe as the programme of the ransom virus was so long that it could not be executed by the operating systems.

Meanwhile, Federal Bank issued a press release stating "Amidst reports of various computer terminals and ATM Machines falling prey to the ransomware attack 'WannaCry', all the ATM machines owned, managed and operated by the bank are secure and fully functional. The bank has in place all the required infrastructure to ensure that none of the bank's property falls prey to any cyber-attack of this nature which has cast a shadow of gloom over the computer users worldwide."

The RBI has asked banks to follow the instructions of the government organisation CERT-In on ransomware which has impacted various IT networks in over 150 countries. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has come out with a list of dos and dont's and webcast on how to protect networks from the global ransomware attack.

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.

...& ANALYSIS

• The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to follow the instructions of the CERT-In on ransomware
   
• CERT-In has come out with a list of dos and don’ts and webcast on how to protect networks