The ransomware popularly known as WannaCry is already a global phenomenon . Within just a few short days, the malware has infected well over 200,000 computers globally, affected hundreds of companies and hampered the working of essential services.

Strangely enough, the impact of the malware in India appears to be minimal, compared to worldwide reports anyway. In fact, Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad went on record to state that the malware had ‘nearly zero’ impact on India.

The only reports we’ve seen so far suggest that a handful of police computers in Visakhapatnam, some computers at a village panchayat in Kerala and a manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu were impacted. This is a far cry from reports of educational institutions in China, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and essential infrastructure in Spain being shut down.

The malware spreads via a leaked NSA (National Security Agency) exploit that targets earlier versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. This includes Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP. Windows 10 is unaffected by the exploit.

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