JKPDD Data Centre Averts Major Malware Intrusion ‘Billing, payment data of consumers secure’

Srinagar, Jun 26: Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (PDD) claimed to have averted a major malware intrusion on Wednesday last.
An official from the Department told Kashmir Glory that, “A cyber threat was detected at 4:42 a.m on 24th June 2020 on four (04) servers out of 103 servers installed across J&K PDD at Data Center (DC) and Disaster Recovery Center (DRC).”
The servers and out location hardware installed across 60 Billing SDOs and 40 other offices were immediately isolated from intranet on JKPDD WAN and internet, the official said, adding “A preliminary scan was initiated on database servers to assess the intrusion of malware.”
JKPDD, as per the official, is currently in the process of conducting a deep scan of all servers installed at DC and DRC and 542 other workstations across out locations to assess malware intrusion in order to avoid any further occurrence of such incidents.
The threat has been contained and billing and payment data of consumers is secure, the official assured.
Since all bills for previous month (May 2020 payable in June 2020) stand generated and distributed, consumers are requested to pay the same at J&K Bank counters and through JK Bank M-pay application in order to avoid late payment surcharge. JKPDD is currently employing best resources available in present Covid-19 situation to restore the system to normal at an earliest, the official said.
This is to repeat that only four out of 103 Servers got affected due to ransom-ware. The data Centre is otherwise robust and shall get fully operational soon with all SOPs/requisite Firewall in place, the official added.