India not much affected by global ransomware attack yet: Prasad

India has largely remained insulated so far from the massive ransomware attack that started in Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday and was spreading to other parts of world, including Asia, on Wednesday, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.

"We have been taking proactive steps... we have sent out advisories (on the cyber attack and the malware)... India is not much affected at this stage," Prasad.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the two-day National Convention on 'Digitalization: Opportunities and Challenges'.

The Shipping Ministry on Wednesday said operations at one of the container terminals at Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) were impacted due to a global cyber attack.

According to the Ministry, a private terminal operator at the JNPT was taking steps to address the issue.

The Ministry said the JNPT was taking steps to ensure minimum disturbance to trade, transporters and local citizens.

Industry lobby Assocham, however, said that the halting of the container movement at the JNPT, following the global cyber attack, is a big warning as to how India is actually no more insulated from such deadly computer viruses which are unleashed to hit the lifeline of the economy.

"The Assocham would urge the government to take a lead in forming a powerful global alliance which could immediately swing into action on a worldwide basis, the moment such computer viruses are released for playing havoc," Secretary General D.S. Rawat said in a statement.

The government is keeping close watch on the issue, Prasad said.

Cyber security experts believe that the new attack was caused by a variant of the Petya ransomware which was unleashed in 2016.

It exploits the same vulnerabilities in Windows systems that WannaCry, the ransomware that affected 200,000 people in 150 countries in May, exploited.

American computer security software company McAfee has warned that the current attack could be a test run for a much bigger and bolder attack in the future.

"We believe that today's events are part of the natural evolution of ransomware technology, but also a test run for a much bigger and bolder attack in the future," Anand Ramamoorthy, Managing Director, South Asia, McAfee, told IANS.

The attack in Ukraine, which had been the country initially most damaged by this cyber attack, has been halted, according to an Efe new report.

Earlier, a Ukrainian federal agency said that the automatic radiation monitoring system at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had been hit by the cyber attack and monitoring was being carried out manually.

But the situation is now "under the full control" of cybersecurity specialists who are working to recover lost data, the government said.

Cyber security experts are not sure who is behind the attack. Ukraine earlier pointed the finger to Moscow for everything, despite the fact that there are several Russian state-owned companies and banks among the victims as well.

US pharmaceutical giant Merck, the world's second largest such firm, confirmed on its Twitter account that its computer network was compromised on Tuesday in the global attack.

The attack also affected Denmark's Maersk shipping company and the French glassmaking and construction materials giant Saint-Gobain.

Although the impact of the attack has not yet been as devastating in India as it has been in some other parts of the world, it could still instill fear in some organisations and consumers, who have been the major target of the ransomware attack.