As predicted by the Singapore based Cybersecurity firm CyFirma earlier this month, a ransomware attack was launched on the email servers operated by the National Highways Authority of India on Sunday this week. However, as the incident was identified and contained at a preliminary stage, no data loss or disruption was observed.
Akhilesh Srivatsav, the IT Chief of NHAI has confirmed the news and stated that other servers were also shut down as a cautionary move. But he denied providing the details of the ransomware variant which targeted the servers.
Last week, the CERT-IN had issued an advisory to all government offices and private firms operating across India about a possible Phishing cyber-attack which could be launched from China- all due to the tension growing between the two nations over a border issue near Nepal.
Note 1- National Highways Authority of India is a government agency that is assigned with the task of developing, maintaining, and managing National Highways, arterial roads, and inter-state movement of passengers and goods.
Note 2- Meanwhile, in one of the major digital developments, the Indian government has decided to impose a ban on TikTok for National Security reasons. Also, 51 other apps developed by Chinese firms like ShareIt, WeChat, and others will be banned from being used by the Indian populace and the Telecom Authority of India will issue guidelines to operators to anticipate the ban on a full scale.
Note 3- Last year in November, the US Military and Naval services imposed a nationwide ban on the use of TikTok and some other Chinese apps, as they were found guilty leaking user data to servers located in the Peoples Republic of China. However, the ban was restricted to Military and government services and was not applicable to be imposed on the normal populace.
