Islamabad, Dec 29 (TIWN) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has warned all its employees of a possible a possible computer virus attack named "Ransomware" , which has been launched worldwide to target machines running on Microsofts Windows operating systems.

The virus specially targets computers running on Windows 7 and 10 and "encrypts the data and (then) the attacker demands ransom from the user to restore the same", The Express Tribune reported citing an IHC statement as saying on Saturday.

The warning, issued from the IHC''s computer network security team, barred users from plugging USBs into any of the official computers and surfing unnecessary websites or opening unauthentic web-links as well as installing new plugins in internet browsers.

A "ransomware" virus can be spread to computers through attachments or links in phishing emails, by infected web sites by means of a drive-by download or via infected USB sticks.