The Indonesian government also urged companies to update their systems on Monday after two hospitals in Jakarta were hit by the ransomware.
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More than 75,000 similar attacks reportedly happened in nearly 100 countries, with Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan hardest hit, according to the cybersecurity firm Avast.
State police: Police in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh said 25% of its systems were hit by the attack late Saturday. WannaCry, the company argues, represents just the latest example of why intelligence agencies should not stockpile computer vulnerabilities that they use to hack into enemy systems.
In one instance, the cyber attack prevented people from receiving hospital care.
Officials across the globe scrambled to catch the culprits behind a massive ransomware worm that disrupted operations at auto factories, hospitals, shops and schools, while Microsoft pinned blame on the U.S. government for not disclosing more software vulnerabilities. Seven of the 47 affected trusts were still having IT problems Monday. Allen G. Breed from Raleigh, North Carolina, Brian Melley in Los Angeles and AP Technology Writer Anick Jesdanun in NY contributed.
A 22-year-old British researcher who uses the Twitter name MalwareTech has been credited with inadvertently helping to stanch the spread of the assault by identifying the web domain for the hackers’ “kill switch” – a way of disabling the malware. He said the software attacking a vulnerability had been incorporated with other software and delivered in a way to cause “infection, encryption and locking”.
Brian Lord, managing director of cyber and technology at cyber security firm PGI, said victims had told him “the customer service provided by the criminals is second-to-none”, with helpful advice on how to pay: “One customer said they actually forgot they were being robbed”.
One person helping coordinate banks’ response said they were setting up back-up systems for data and introducing security upgrades. “It is so visible and so global”.
Go into Control Panel or Settings, look for Network and Sharing Center and click Change Advanced Sharing Settings.
As a result of being unable to easily update and reboot their systems, hospitals may put off updating vulnerable software.
Hitachi: The Japanese electronics firm said Monday that its computer systems have been experiencing problems since the weekend, including not being able to send and receive emails or open attached files.
A hospital in Oshawa, Ont., was also affected but suffered no significant damage, according to a spokesperson.
Instead, victims have to wait and hope WannaCry’s developers will remotely free the hostage computer over the internet.
“The affected company doesn’t fall under critical infrastructure, it’s not a medical or health service and it is not a big company”, he said.
Shares in firms that provide cyber security services jumped on the prospect of companies and governments spending more money on defences, led by Israel’s Cyren Ltd and USA firm FireEye Inc.
This time, though, Microsoft believes others should share responsibility for the attack, an assault that targeted flaws in the Windows operating system. Shortly after that disclosure, Microsoft announced that it had already issued software “patches”, or fixes, for those holes – but many users haven’t yet installed the fixes or are using older versions of Windows.
“Companies like Microsoft should discard the idea that they can abandon people using older software”, Zeynep Tufekci, an associate professor at the school of information and library science at the University of North Carolina, wrote in a New York Times opinion piece over the weekend.
Microsoft should do everything it can to move users on to newer, safer software.
Brad Smith criticized USA intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA), for “stockpiling” software code that can be used by hackers. Cybersecurity experts say the unknown hackers who launched the attacks used a vulnerability that was exposed in NSA documents leaked online.
Tom Bossert, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, addressed the issue at the White House daily press briefing.
Law enforcement warns to never pay the ransom.
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If the criminals were smart, Heilman said, they’d have asked for payment in the form of gift cards from retail stores. “It’s like after a robber enters your home”.
