WannaCry, well this ransomware could not have been named better. The world’s largest ransomware has the world on edge, even without squeezing out the money they intended from the victims. Even as it hit UK’s National Health Services where it hurt the most, stalling surgeries and calling back ambulances, it got cyber experts across the world thinking about the real impact of a hit like this. We all live in a digital world where the domino effect is hard to pause.
While computers in India have also been affected, there is a lot more to ponder for us as a nation, especially a nation that aspires for a Digital India. We as a country love pirated software, hate regular software updates and don’t think security software is worth the effort. We are the sort of geography where cyber criminal do test runs, just to see if their bug is up to it.
Scarier still, it seems there is a cloud of ignorance across individual and institutional users that would make ours a bigger vulnerability. For instance, how does the government machinery in India cope with a threat like this? What is the SOP, if at all there is one. Is there a centralised team that tackles an attack like this and monitors results real time? If there is one, we have not heard about it.
What happens to a lone computer with some critical data in a some faraway village in Chhattisgarh?
There has to be a proper system in place to ensure that those systems are updated and those operating it have been given training on how to prevent an attack. In a country as vast as India, with millions of vulnerable Windows devices spread into what might be the remotest locations in the world, this is not going to be an easy task.
However, WannaCry is a clearly a wake up call for India and other countries on the perils of a hyper digital existence. After all, the vulnerability in question was created by the US National Security Agency as a cyber weapon to take on terrorists and enemy states. It would be surprising if this hasn’t already given some ideas to others.
