NPCI likely to restore retail payment operations of co-op banks by today: Sources

Technology Service vendor, C-Edge Technologies, which faced a ransomware attack on its servers leading to disruption in services to several cooperative banks, is in the advanced stage of hiring a forensic auditor to look into the matter, said people familiar with the development. Meanwhile the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)- is working towards restoring the retail payment services of these banks, the people added. NPCI had disconnected C-Edge from its server following the attack, it announced late Wednesday evening.C-Edge, a joint venture between software major TCS and the State Bank of India, provides comprehensive core banking solutions using an outsourced application service model for cooperative banks. It is estimated that online payment services of over a 100 cooperative banks were disrupted. Although the number of banks involved is large, it constitutes 0.5% share in online payment transactions.

“The restoration will happen today, it was a cautious move so that the rest of the payment system remains isolated from the fallout of the malware attack,” one of the persons cited above said. “C-Edge is also in the process of hiring a forensic auditor to investigate the matter.”

ET has learnt that NPCI was informed about the ransomware attack on July 26.

C-Edge had hired Brontoo Technology Solutions to deploy connectivity with Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). For this Brontoo was using Amazon Cloud Server, from where the attack could have likely emanated, people in the know said.

On Wednesday, NPCI released a statement which said that C-Edge Technologies has been possibly impacted by a Ransomware attack impacting a few of their systems.“To prevent larger impact to the payment ecosystem, NPCI has temporarily isolated C-Edge Technologies from accessing the retail payment systems operated by NPCI. Customers of banks serviced by C-Edge will not be able to access payment systems during the period of isolation,” it said.It also stated that restoration work was underway and would be restored at the earliest.