WannaCry Virus

May 16 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

`WannaCry' virus spreads to Asia, fear of new wave looms
London:


2,000 Computers Affected In Japan; Schools, Univs, Railways, Hospitals Hit In China; Indonesia, S Korea Too Targeted

The worldwide “ransomware'' cyberattack spread to thousands more computers on Monday as people across Asia logged in at work, disrupting businesses, schools, hospitals and daily life. But no new large-scale outbreaks were reported, and British officials said a feared second wave of infections had not materialised.

The new infections were largely in Asia, which had been closed for business when the malware first struck. In Britain, whose health service was among the first targets of the online extortion scheme, health secretary Jeremy Hunt said “we have not seen a second wave of attacks.“

The malware, known as “WannaCry ,“ paralysed computers running factories, banks, government agencies and transport systems, hitting 200,000 victims in more than 150 countries. Among those hit were Russia's interior ministry and companies including Spain's Telefonica and FedEx Corp in the US.

Though the spread of the ransomware slowed on Monday , many companies and government agencies were still struggling to recover from the first attack. Renault said one of its French plants, which employs 3,500 people, wasn't reopening on Monday as a “preventative step.'' In Asia, where Friday's attack occurred after business hours, thousands of new cases were reported on Monday as people came back to work.

The Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center, a nonprofit group, said 2,000 computers at 600 locations in Japan were affected. Companies including Hitachi and Nissan Motor Co reported problems but said they had not seriously affected their operations. Chinese state media said 29,372 institutions there had been infected along with hundreds of thousands of devices. Universities and other educational institutions in China were among the hardest hit, possibly because schools tend to have old computers and be slow to update operating systems and security , said Fang Xingdong, founder of ChinaLabs, an internet strategy think tank.

On social media, students complained about not being able to access their work, and people in various cities said they hadn't been able to take their driving tests over the weekend because some local traffic police systems were down.

Railway stations, mail delivery, gas stations, hospitals, office buildings, shopping malls and government services also were affected, China's Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Threat Intelligence Center of Qihoo 360, an internet security services firm. In Indonesia, the malware locked patient files on computers in two hospitals in the capital, Jakarta, causing delays.

South Korea said just nine cases of ransomware had been found in the country so far.

Experts urged organisations and companies to immediately update older Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows XP , with a patch released by Microsoft Corp to limit vulnerability to a more powerful version of the malware -or to future versions that can't be stopped.

The attack held users hostage by freezing their computers, popping up a red screen with the words, “Oops, your files have been encrypted!'' and demanding money through online bitcoin payment -$300 at first, rising to $600 before it destroys files hours later. As cybersecurity firms worked around the clock to monitor the situation and install a software patch, new variants of the rapidly replicating malware were discovered on Sunday . One did not include the so-called kill switch that allowed researchers to interrupt the malware's spread on Friday.

Ryan Kalember, senior vice president at Proofpoint Inc, which helped stop its spread, said the version without a kill switch could spread. It was benign because it contained a flaw that prevented it from taking over computers and demanding ransom to unlock files but other more malicious ones will likely pop up.

“We haven't fully dodged this bullet at all until we're patched against the vulnerability itself,'' Kalember said. AP