India's central bank advises banks to run ATMs after updating system

India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), issued an advisory to banks on Monday, directing them to run ATMs only after updating their operating system, state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) reported.

The advisory has been issued to protect them from a ransomware impacting systems across the world.

The malware named "WannaCry" has affected systems across the globe, taking down computer systems, locking up critical data and demanding bitcoins as ransom for its release.

"ATM machines are seen as being vulnerable since almost all of them run on Windows software. Also over 60 percent of 225,000 ATMs in the country run on the outdated Windows XP operating system," the broadcaster said. "ATM operators however, say that there is no threat to customer data on money."

In India, 102 computer systems of the Andhra Pradesh police were hacked on Saturday and a Nissan Renault car plant production was halted because of the malware.

Indian government's cyber security wing Indian Computer Emergency Response Team has cautioned the country's key stakeholders like RBI, National Payments Corporation of India, National Informatics Centre and other organizations of the malware.

A massive cyber attack on Friday evening struck organizations across the world. Russia and Spain are among the most affected by the malicious software, reports said. Endit