(Dan Tri) – A large-scale cyber attack, apparently using tools stolen from the US National Security Agency (NSA), has affected a series of countries around the world, with about
Blackmail message from cyber attackers (Photo: Twitter)
BBC reported that computers at thousands of locations were infected with ransomware, locking users’ data unless they paid the attackers $300 in Bitcoin virtual currency.
Attackers appear to have taken advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft systems that the US National Security Agency (NSA) discovered and named it EternalBlue.
Sources said that the cyber attack took place on a global scale, affecting 99 countries, including the UK, US, China, Russia, Spain, Italy and Taiwan.
Cyber security company Avast said it has seen 75,000 cases of malware infection – known as WannaCry and variants of this name – worldwide.
A series of large companies suffered cyber attacks
A series of hospitals in the UK were affected by the cyber attack on May 12 (Photo: DM)
A series of hospitals across the UK on May 12 became the target of an attack, causing the hospitals’ computer systems to stop working.
Images uploaded to social networks show a computer screen of the British National Health Service (NHS) showing a photo asking for $300 in Bitcoin with the statement: “Oh, your data has been encrypted
An NSA employee said patients were definitely affected by the above cyber attack.
Some sources say Russia has seen more cases of malware infection than any other country.
Users also posted images of computers infected with malware, including a local train ticket vending machine in Germany and a computer room at a university in Italy.
A series of Spanish companies, including telecommunications group Telefonica, energy company Iberdrola and gas supplier Gas Natural, were also attacked.
A series of other large companies such as Portugal Telecom, FedEx, Megafon also became victims of the cyber attack.
Many researchers said the attacks appeared to be related, but said it did not appear to be a coordinated attack on specific targets.
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