Global Ransomware attack hits 99 countries, United Kingdom hospitals among targets

The statement said antivirus systems are working to destroy it. Many canceled all routine procedures and asked patients not to come to the hospital unless it was an emergency.

“IT managers need to be extremely aware that new variants of this ransomware attack are being launched nearly hourly, so they can’t just check that their computer systems are protected, then relax, assuming everything will stay that way”, he said. Computer security company Kaspersky said that it is now in the process of developing a decryption tool that can unlock the inaccessible files.

NHS Digital said it was working with the government’s National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to help the organizations affected “manage the incident swiftly and decisively”.

“We are on a downward slope, the infections are extremely few, because the malware is not able to connect to the registered domain”, said Vikram Thakur, principal research manager at Symantec.

Private security firms identified the ransomware as a new variant of “WannaCry”.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd is to chair an emergency meeting as tech experts work to disrupt an worldwide cyber attack which has crippled NHS services across the country.

By Kaspersky Lab’s count, the malware struck at least 74 countries.

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who in 2013 leaked thousands of classified documents, has blamed the intelligence agency for not preventing the global cyber attack. It also said the attack did not specifically target the NHS.

Microsoft released a fix, or patch, for the issue on March 16, prior to the dump.

“This just goes to prove that cybercriminals don’t care who they target with ransomware, as long as the victim is willing to pay”.

On Wednesday, hackers disputed the websites of several French media companies and aerospace giant Airbus.

It is feared computers in A&E wards, GP surgeries and other vital services across the NHS were infected with a virus based on hacking tools developed by United States cyber warfare agents. “They told us there was a problem”.

Dharmais Hospital and Harapan Kita Hospital in Jakarta are affected by the ransomware, said Semuel Pangerapan, a director general at Indonesia’s Communication and Information Ministry.

The ransomware encrypts data on the computer using an encryption key that only the attacker knows.

Rudd told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “Cyber and cyber security is a huge industry and it is an area where we can all do better to protect our businesses and our personal information and I would expect NHS trusts to learn from this and to make sure that they do upgrade [their IT systems]”.

Even if the NHS wasn’t targeted, it took the brunt of the attack.

In the U.S., FedEx Corp. reported that its Windows computers were “experiencing interference” from malware, but wouldn’t say if it had been hit by ransomware.

A security camera stands outside the main Telefonica headquarters in Madrid, Spain, Friday, May 12, 2017.

An expert on malware says the world’s worst ransomware outbreak shows that hospitals are particularly vulnerable to this kind of cyberattack.

“Appropriate economy-wide policy responses are needed”, the ministers said in their draft statement, seen by Reuters. “A number of countries and organizations have been affected”.

In a statement Saturday, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, known as EC3, said the attack “is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex global investigation to identify the culprits”.