Overarching security crucial against ransomware attack: Mojo

The last few days have seen an increase in scrutiny of security measures in the wake of the ransomware attack that has surfaced in companies across the world.

With a major emphasis on taking regular backups, IT security experts believe that the End point Security and anti-virus wing of a firm's IT department have to make sure that unknown attachments are automatically diverted to the 'spam' folder.

"Most vulnerable will be the users in small to medium enterprises, startups and professionals like lawyers, doctors, architects who don't have the cushion of IT services. Nevertheless, one should never pay the ransom as it will encourage attackers," said Kiran Deshpande, Co-founder and President of Mojo Networks.

"From a security perspective, hackers or bad guys look for weak link to break into. Today, it's a worm. It can as well be the Wi-Fi environment which unless properly protected can open front door and back door for intrusions to take place. Especially in India, Wi-Fi has been hacked into multiple times to do social damage and create terror. Proper hygiene and overarching security that plugs in multiple holes is the key," added Deshpande.

The world's biggest cyber attack launched on Friday has hit 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries.

Friday's attack was unprecedented in its reach with more than 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries but warns of a more escalating threat as the number of victims will grow when people go to work and turn their machines on Monday morning, CNN quoted Rob Wainwright, the head of the European Union's law enforcement agency Europol as saying .

Organisations around the world have spent weekend trying to recover after being hit by a virus that seeks to seize control of computers until victims pay a ransom.

Ransonware that has been dubbed 'WannaCry" security is one of the worst and wide spread malware they ever faced. Ransomware cyber attacks cause hospitals of U.K. to cancel their patient's appointment.

Earlier this morning, 'WannaCry' was also reported to have attacked some parts of India as well.

Several computers at West Bengals power distribution company offices were attacked by the ransomware 'WannaCry'.

Officials from West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL) confirmed the development and said it has been detected at four offices in West Midnapore district affecting PCs in four blocks of Belda, Datan, Narayngarh and Keshiyari.

After striking West Bengal Electricity utility, WannaCry ransomware has also struck Kerala's Wayanad Panchayat office.

Four computers in a Panchayat office in Wayanad have been suspected to attacked by the virus.

The authorities claim that the files could not open and there is a message demanding 300 dollars be put in the account within three days.

India's cyber security agency has alerted Internet users against damaging activities of 'WannaCry'- that critically infects work stations and locks them remotely.

Ransomware actually locks down files on an infected computer and asks the computer's administrator to pay in bit coins in order to regain control of them.

The computer can be infected by taking advantage of a Windows vulnerability that Microsoft (MSFT ,Tech30)released a security patch for in March and computers that hadn't updated were still at risk.

Security agencies have so far not been able to identify who was behind the attack. But Europol considers ransomware attacks as criminal as few payments had so far been made i response to the attack. WannaCry has already caused massive disruption around the globe.