Ransomware hits Gurgaon-based Blackberrys, hackers demand Rs 25 lakh

Makers of Nivea, JNPT and Reckitt Benckiser have suffered malware attacks in the past few months

A Gurgaon-based company that owns the Blackberrys clothing brand has fallen prey to a ransomware attack, the Hindustan Times reported. The company's servers were hacked by the attackers, who demanded Rs 25 lakh to be paid in Bitcoins. 

Surprisingly, the company had informed the police of the attacks on March 16 -- that is, more than a month before a spate of cyber attacks hit global multinational firms. However, the police registered a case only on Thursday, after investigating the case.

The first instance of such attacks came to light when a malware called WannaCry hit more than 200,000 systems in over 150 countries. The virus encrypted important data in affected computers and demanded a ransom of $300 in return for restoring access. For creating the virus, hackers had made use of a stolen tool that the National Security Agency (NSA) had developed to exploit a flaw in Microsoft Windows, as had been reported earlier by the Business Standard. 

In the past couple of months, Reckitt Benckiser, Nivea, and, most significantly, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust have also suffered ransomware attacks.

Recently, it was feared that ATMs used by the State Bank of India, the country's largest bank by deposits, could be exposed to the attacks as it uses outdated Microsoft operating systems. However, the bank clarified in the aftermath of the attacks that the security threat had been patched. 

The central government had also announced measures by the Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT-In) to safeguard the country's financial and power sectors from such attacks.