PANAJI
The server holding Goa's flood management data has been hacked and the government has received a quaint ransom demand: pay in bitcoins and cryptocurrency to get back the data.
An official of the Water Resources Department (WRD) has filed a complaint with the Cybercrime Police station reporting the breach of their server, way back on June 24.
The cyberattack has rendered all the data unusable even as efforts are continuing to recover it, the official said in the complaint.
WRD sources said, the system used to monitor data from 15 locations of Goa's rivers and forms part of the State's disaster management system.
The data from these 15 flood monitoring locales, automated rain gauges and weather gauges used to be stored by default on the server at the data centre in Porvorim.
The data centre is managed by a Hyderabad-based company, which has now been asked to recover the data at their own risk and cost.
"They have also been asked to upgrade the system and block any further attacks," a senior WRD official said.
Meanwhile, according to the complaint lodged with the Cyber Police, the server was attacked with ransomware, by encrypting files and demanding ransom in Bitcoins and Cryptocurrency to decrypt the data.
“The server works on a 24x7 internet line and the attack was possible due to absence of antivirus and outdated firewalls,” the complaint states.
