PANJIM: The Water Resources Department (WRD) has been hit by a major cyberattack that has compromised servers that stored data on flood monitoring stations. The unknown hackers have demanded a ransom of bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, in exchange for decryption of the WRD’s data.
As a result, the department has also lost access to real-time data of rivers currently flowing in spate due to the vigorous monsoon activity across the State.
In their complaint to the Cyber Crime Cell of Goa Police, the department states that all its files have been encrypted and can no longer be accessed.
“The server has been attacked by some ransomware. All files are encrypted with an ‘eking extension’ and cannot be accessed. In a popup and stored file, the attackers have demanded bitcoin in exchange for decryption of the data. The attack was carried out on June 21, 2022, between 12 am and 2 am. The integrity of the data has been altered, making it impossible to back up the previous data. The server works 24×7 on the internet line. The attack was easy, due to absence of antivirus and outdated firewalls,” reads the complaint filed by Executive Engineer Sunil Karmarkar.
While the Cyber Cell has initiated a probe into the complaint, experts from ASTRA Microwave Products limited, Hyderabad, the organisation that maintains the servers, have purportedly arrived in Goa to assist the police investigation.
Sources said that the data of flood monitoring system, automated rain gauges and weather gauges are stored in the server.
“The data centre server in Panjim was storing data of the flood monitoring system at 15 locations on major rivers in Goa, to monitor flood levels in rivers as part of disaster preparedness and management. As a result of the hacking, the department can now no longer access its data related to battery voltages of different stations, data packets related to 12 stations, has lost all its old data which can now no longer be backed up locally, and has also lost real time data of the rivers currently in spate owing to the ongoing vigorous monsoon activity across the State,” the complaint stated.
“The Cyber Cell registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act soon after completing its preliminary inquiry. The investigation has begun and ASTRA officials will also assist the police in this case,” a WRD official told Herald.
It is not known if the affected system is disabled, but investigators said that the breach is severe.
The complaint filed on June 24 came into the public domain on Thursday.
