City hospital system down, officials fear 'WannaCry' attack

Berhampur/Bhubaneswar: The WannaCry ransomeware virus is feared to have attacked the data system of the government-run Berhampur City Hospital here in Odisha's Ganjam district, officials said.

The additional district medical officer (ADMO), Saroj Mishra said it appeared that the data and information management system were hit by the virus and experts were trying to ascertain what happened.

Experts from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) arrived here and carried out a thorough examination to ascertain whether the system failure happened due to the WannaCry ransomeware attack or due to some technical snag, Mishra said.

The computer system was displaying a message demanding $300 for restoration and access to the hospital's information management system, the ADMO said.

The hospital's e-medicine services and data were affected. The information management system was also affected due to the attack, hospital officials said.

An FIR was lodged with the police.

State's IT minister Chandra Sarathi Behera told reporters in Bhubaneswar that a technical team was sent to the Berhampur City Hospital.

He said the IT department had already issued an advisory and asked all government departments as well as district collectors to remain alert. The advisory included guidelines for taking precautionary measures, he said.

The crime branch of Odisha police on Monday had issued an advisory for net users.

Over two lakh computers in at least 150 countries are said to have been infected, according to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency.