Long Before 'WannaCry' Ransomware, Decades Of Cyber 'Wake-Up Calls'
By latest counts, more than 200,000 computers in some 150 countries have been hit by a cyberattack using ransomware called WannaCry or WannaCrypt, which locked the data and demanded payment in bitcoin. The malware was stopped by a young U.K. researcher's lucky discovery of a kill switch, but not before it caused hospitals to divert patients and factories to shut operations.
The origins of the malicious software — which feeds on a Microsoft vulnerability — trace back to the National Security Agency: cybertools stolen from the government and posted publicly in April. Microsoft had issued a patch in March. (And here are good tips to generally secure yourself.)
"The governments of the world should treat this attack as a wake-up call. ... We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these. "We need the tech sector, customers, and governments to work together to protect against cybersecurity attacks. ... In this sense, the WannaCrypt attack is a wake-up call for all of us."
