200,000 victims in 150 countries

> Cyber-attack threat escalating: Europol

LONDON: Friday’s cyber attack hit 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries and that number could grow when people return to work today, the head of the European Union’s police agency said yesterday.

Cyber security experts say the spread of the virus dubbed WannaCry – “ransomware” which locked up computers in car factories, hospitals, shops and schools in several countries – has slowed, but that any respite might be brief.

Europol director Rob Wainwright told ITV’s Peston on Sunday programme the attack was unique in that the ransomware was used in combination with “a worm functionality” so the infection spread automatically.

“The global reach is unprecedented. The latest count is over 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries, and those victims, many of those will be businesses, including large corporations,” he said.

“At the moment, we are in the face of an escalating threat. The numbers are going up; I am worried about how the numbers will continue to grow when people go to work and turn (on) their machines on Monday morning.”

He said Europol and other agencies did not yet know who was behind the attack but “normally it is criminally minded and that is our first working theory for obvious reasons”.

“Of course there are amounts that are being demanded, in this case relatively small amounts – US$300 rising to US$600 if you don’t pay within three days,” he said.

“(There have been) remarkably few payments so far that we’ve noticed as we are tracking this, so most people are not paying this, so there isn’t a lot of money being made by criminal organisations so far.”

In Asia, some hospitals, schools, and other institutions were affected.

A Jakarta hospital said yesterday that the cyber virus had infected 400 computers, disrupting the registration of patients and finding records.

In Singapore, a company that supplies digital signage was rushing to fix its systems after a technician’s error had led to 12 kiosks being infected in two malls. – Reuters

A window announcing the encryption of data and a demand for payment appears on an electronic timetable display at the railway station in the German city of Chemnitz on Friday.