a deadly computer virus win-cih (W indows-Chernobyl) attacked computers all over India on April 26. According to estimates, more than 1 lakh computers in banks, multinational companies and stock exchanges were affected.
The virus, programmed to come alive on the 26th of every month, the date marking the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine, caused widespread panic and confusion. In some cases, the virus caused severe physical damage to the computer hardware.
Data recovery experts put the loss in some corporations as high as Rs 20 lakh. Apart from data loss, there were major work hour losses and hold-ups in on-line operations because of the inaccessibility of the information stored in the computers.
"We have received more than 800 calls from all parts of the country for the data recovery and we are processing around 200 hard drives every day," said Sunil Chandna, director of the Delhi-based Stellar Information Systems, specialising in data recovery.
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