FIR filed after suspected malware attack on NIC, police downplays intrusion

Delhi Police said it has registered a case on the complaint of the NIC about a suspected malware attack after one of its staffers faced difficulty in accessing his official email account on a computer

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Malware attack | NIC | Delhi Police

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

The on Friday said it has registered a case on the complaint of the Informatics Centre (NIC) about a suspected after one of its staffers faced difficulty in accessing his official email account on a computer.

An email was sent to the official ID of an staffer and when the receiver clicked on the link, it appeared that malware had set in on that particular computer, a senior police officer said, adding the claimed there is no loss of data.

The FIR was registered in the first week of September on the complaint of the NIC, following which the investigated the matter and has identified the source, he said.

However, police said they cannot disclose the source yet as they are proceeding further in their investigation.

The reports being carried in certain sections of the media about widespread cyber intrusion involving high offices are unsubstantiated and do not reflect the current stage of investigation, police said in a statement.

The Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is providing network backbone and e-governance support to central and state governments, UT administrations, districts and other government bodies.

In a statement, Additional PRO of Anil Mittal said, "A government employee had recently reported that he was having difficulty inaccessing his official email account by the which was lying unused for some weeks.

It was found by the NIC that there was an attempted breach by unidentified cyber actors -- a kind of regular activity over cyberspace which was, however, detected by its robust cybersecurity systems," he added.

Mittal said as an abundant precaution, a formal investigation into the matter has been launched and a case registered at the Delhi Police's Special Cell.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Read our full coverage on Malware attack
First Published: Fri, September 18 2020. 17:42 IST
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