J&K PDD suffers ‘Cyber Attack': CE

All data safe, Cyber Cell starts investigations

Nasir Azam

Srinagar, June 26: For the first since cyber war gained speed across the globe, hackers launched a cyber-attack on the Power Development Department of Jammu and Kashmir on June 26 forcing the department to put off its all major servers. However, all the billing data and customer records are safe both in Kashmir and Jammu regions.

Terming it as a cyber-attack, Chief Engineer PDD Kashmir Aijaz Ahmed told that on June 24, servers started misbehaving. “Our technical teams observed something fishy, that somebody was trying to enter into website. We have put down four major servers to prevent further loss of data. All other computers having customer data and billing records too have been shut.”

The CE PDD said that so far the data retrieved suggests that all data is safe. “We have 55 servers in Kashmir and 45 in Jammu. So far luckily, all data is safe,” he said.

He said the issue has been taken up with the Cyber Cell police. “Their teams came to our server station and suggested that we must put off the rest of the servers too.”

Senior Superintendent of Police Cyber Cell Tahir Ashraf told that there has been a Cyber-attack on the PDD servers and that they have initiated a preliminary inquiry and will investigate,” he said.