Companies are inviting another WannaCry type ransomware attack in a rush to implement GST

Companies are rushing to get ready for implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and in the process, they are not catering to security loopholes, thus inviting another ransomware WannaCry type attack.

In a hurry to meet the deadline, a number of key security elements is not being addressed.

This was revealed when a cyber security team stumbled upon security loopholes in the newly implemented information technology (IT) infrastructure for GST.

"Everyone is now rushing to meet the deadline of implementation; however, we've noticed that in this hurry, businesses miss out on a number of key security elements. Also, a lot of the critical financial information will soon start traversing the internet, and organisations are still not aware of how information shared for GST may result in significant business risk and, potentially, reveal sensitive business strategies,” Sivarama Krishnan, leader-Cyber Security at PwC India, told ET.

Off late, Indian companies are increasingly facing cyber attacks, the recent being the WannaCry ransomware.

"Many companies conducted an audit on their IT systems after the WannaCry attack to see if there were more vulnerabilities and it was discovered that there were several loopholes. Also with the introduction of GST and new involvement of infrastructure being involved, we foresee that more businesses in India would face new challenges with cyber security," Altaf Halde, Managing Director South Asia, Kaspersky Lab, told ET.

India was the third worst hit nation by ransomware WannaCry as about 48,000 computers were affected, even though no major corporate or bank reported disruption to their activities, raising doubts whether these entities are disclosing the attack at all.