New Delhi: A malicious mail containing a dangerous computer virus from the email ID of the Indian Ambassador in Uzbekistan to some senior officials of the Home Ministry has sent alarm bells ringing in the security establishment here.
The 'Trojan' virus concealed inside a sham list of indigenous Indian terrorists has even escaped the Trend Micro Anti-virus software deployed by the government's IT arm National Informatics Centre (NIC) in the official computers.
After detecting the virus, the IB swung into action immediately for damage limitation and advised a number of procedures to be followed by all officials who use computers in the North Block premise.
Investigators believe that the hackers, based in a foreign country, cracked the official email ID of the Indian Ambassador to Uzbekistan and sent the mail with an intention to infiltrate in the Home Ministry computer networks.
"There is proper control over the use of Computer Storage Media (CSM). If the same Pen Drive is used in standalone and Internet computers, all precautions should be taken to ensure that Pen Drive is treated with anti-virus software and there is no hidden folder," the IB advisory said.
The government is also taking action to fight back the hackers. National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon had held a high-level security meeting on July 29 which was attended by Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Mathur as well as senior officials of Department of Telecommunication and security agencies.
