Oman takes preventive steps to minimise cyber attack risk

Government organisations and ministries have swung into action to minimise the risk of global ransomware attack and prevent it from spreading further in Oman on Sunday.

Following the cyber attacks and the so-called WannaCry virus, currently spreading around the world, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) said that a specialised team, capable of responding to information security emergencies, was working in cooperation with other agencies in the Sultanate.

Yesterday, several ministries suspended their online work as a precautionary measure following the global attack.

“All electronic services, including the complaints system, work leave notices, commercial electronic licence requests, work permit requests and commercial and private electronic licence requests, will be suspended for 48 hours,” the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement on Sunday.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs has also temporarily closed all electronic services, as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of virus.

Muscat Municipality has also closed all its electronic programmes, as well as ministry emails.

Dr Bader bin Salim Almanthari, Director-General, Information Security Division at ITA, remarked, “We assure everybody that the issue is under control. However, at the same time, we would like to draw the attention of the government and private organisations to the importance of taking serious protective measures to deal with all cyber security attacks, including the necessity of creating backups of all data of organisations before starting work, updating antiviruses programmes and activating auto scanning for all organisation’s networks regularly.”

The ITA official also clarified that the targets of the virus were Windows systems which have not been updated. “If a direct attack with the virus is discovered, the infected systems must be disconnected from the network,” he added.

He further warned against directly contacting the source of attacks and not to pay any ransom, whatever the damage is, as these attackers seek to achieve financial gain and will not be contented with small amounts.

“They will demand additional amounts when one responds to their attacks,” he said.

Sultan Qaboos University has issued a statement regarding the cyberattack, saying, “Our central servers have not been affected by the ransomware virus, as they have protective programs running in them. All electronic services and systems were shut down yesterday (Saturday) as a precautionary measure.”

The Information Systems Centre at the University urged all users to ensure that antivirus program Trend Micro had received the latest update on their devices and to connect with specialists at the Centre for any enquiries.

Meanwhile, SQU Hospital said, “As part of intensive national efforts, the SQU Hospital is taking precautionary measures to avoid the impact of the ransomware virus. Clinical service systems in the hospital are fully functional, and the rumours circulating in social media about the electronic systems being down in the hospital are false.”

Source: Timesofoman