The ransomware, called Wana Decryptor or #WannaCry, has been found infecting machines across the globe. It works by exploiting a Windows vulnerability that the U.S. National Security Agency may have used for spying.
The malware encrypts data on a PC and shows users a note demanding $300 in bitcoin to have their data decrypted. Images of the ransom note have been circulating on Twitter. Security experts have detected tens of thousands of attacks, apparently spreading over LANs and the internet like a computer worm.
How big is the attack?
There have been reports of infections in 99 countries, including the UK, US, China, Russia, Spain, Italy and Taiwan.
Some larger organizations, such as Spain’s Telefonica SA and FedEx Corp. were also infected. A spokesman for Telefonica said the hack affected some employees at its headquarters, but the Spanish phone company is attacked frequently and the impact of Friday’s incident wasn’t major. FedEx said it was “experiencing interference,” according to an Associated Press report.
How to Protect Yourself from WannaCry
First of all, if you haven’t patched your Windows machines and servers against EternalBlue exploit (MS17-010), do it right now.
To safeguard against such ransomware infection, you should always be suspicious of uninvited documents sent an email and should never click on links inside those documents unless verifying the source.
